book  is  T  ' 


.TATE  Ml          SCHOOL, 

DOS  A'K$W;K- 


THE 


PLACE    OF    THE    STORY 


EARLY    EDUCATION 


AND  OTHER  ESSAYS 


BY 

SARA  E.  WILTSE 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. 
PUBLISHED  BY  GINN  &  COMPANY 

1892 


COPYRIGHT,  1892, 
BY  SARA  E.  W1LTSE. 


'TYPOGRAPHY   BY  J.    S.    GUSHING   &  Co.,   BOSTON,   U.S.A. 


PRBSSWORK  BY  GINN  &  Co.,  BOSTON,  U.S.A. 


Educatioi 
Library 


/  1  17 


THE  Author  gratefully  acknowledges  the  courtesy 
of  the  editors  of  the  Christian  Register,  the  Christian 
Union,  and  the  American  Journal  of  Psychology  in 
allowing  this  reprint  of  essays  which  first  appeared  in 
their  columns. 


CONTENTS. 


PLACE  OF  THE  STORY  IN  EARLY  EDUCATION  .         .       1 
STUDY  OF  CHILDREN. 

PART  I.     The  Child  a  Volume  to  be  read      .     .14 

PART  II.     Physical  Phenomena  an  Alphabet  of 

Feeling 23 

PART  III.     Thought  succeeding  Feeling :  Ryth- 

mic  Sense  an  Intellectiial  Lever     ....     32 

PART  IV.     Finger    Songs    related    to    Family 

Life  and  the  Imaginative  Faculty       ...     41 

PART  V.  Songs  and  Games  for  the  Cultiva- 
tion of  the  Senses :  Their  Eight  Use  and 
their  Dangers 51 

PART  VI.     Natural  Phenomena  related  to  the 

Spiritual  Life  of  the  Child 60 

PART  VII.     The   Dull   Child  the  Wise  Man's 

Problem      .     .     .     , 67 

v 


VI  CONTENTS. 

TAOK 

CHILDREN'S  HA  KITS TO 

LEARNING.  TO  USE  MONEY 93 

SOUND-BLINDNESS 99 

A  STUDY  OF  ADOLESCENCE 108 

MI.NTAL  IMAOEUY  OK  BOYS 118 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE. 


THE  writer  of  this  book  loves  children.  She  has 
voluntarily  gone  down  from  work  in  higher  grades 
to  teach  the  youngest.  She  is  an  excellent  story- 
teller to  children.  Like  Dujardin,  she  does  not 
believe  in  art  for  art's  sake ;  but  out  of  a  mind  well- 
stored  with  the  best,  she  adapts,  and  often  invents, 
her  tales  as  a  means  of  moral  improvement. 

The  woman's  kingdom  is  fast  coming  in  school 
work,  as  statistics  everywhere  show.  It  should  be  a 
kingdom  in  which  love  is  supreme.  Perhaps  men 
teachers  are  more  prone  to  regard  chiefly  the  subject- 
matter  of  culture,  to  mechanize,  to  instruct,  to  re- 
spect logical  order.  But  all  teaching,  especially  that 
of  the  very  young,  must  always  be  a  work  of  love 
to  be  really  effective.  This  was  its  original  motive ; 
yet,  so  far  have  we  gone  in  our  idolatry  of  the  mate- 
rial of  culture,  so  far  have  we  forgotten  that  the 
dominant  motive  of  the  Great  Teacher  must  animate 
all  good  and  true  teaching,  that  it  seems  almost  like 
a  Copernicus-revolution  to  make  the  child,  and  not 
knowledge,  the  centre  of  the  whole  educational  sys- 
tem, and  to  insist  that  its  nature  and  need  must 
dominate  everything  in  education,  and  that  child- 


Vlll  INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 

study  so  directed  as  to  instruct  concerning  child- 
nature  and  to  awaken  child-love,  should  be  the 
beginning  of  the  teacher's  wisdom. 

Love  of  childhood  and  youth  has  always  been  one 
of  the  strongest  incentives  to  high  thoughts  and 
noble  deeds.  All  the  teachings  of  Socrates  seem 
inspired  by  love  of  the  best  Greek  youths.  The 
same  was  true  of  Fichte.  Pestalozzi  found  his  in- 
spiration in  the  love  of  younger  and  less  favored 
children,  and  Froebel's  heart  went  out  toward  the 
promise  and  potency  of  yet  younger  children. 
Between  two  teachers,  one  trained  in  the  best  nor- 
mal college,  but  unsympathetic  and  devoted  to 
ready-made  methods,  and  the  other  with  a  heart 
full  of  love,  but  ignorant  of  even  the  three  R's, 
what  parent  of  young  children  would  hesitate  ? 
The  love  would  bring  the  knowledge,  but  knowl- 
edge cannot  bring  the  love.  This  author  does  what 
she  can  to  stir  up  women  to  do  in  their  own  way 
what  men  have  long  striven  to  do  in  theirs,  and 
would  see  knowledge,  not  less  but  ever  more,  every- 
where subordinated,  as  she  seeks  to  subordinate  the 
story,  as  a  means  to  mental  and  moral  growth. 

G.  STANLEY  HALL. 

ASHFIELD,  MASS.,  August  30,  1892. 


THE   PLACE   OF   THE   STORY   IN 

EARLY   EDUCATION.1 

.-  >    .  c 

^/f  3 

To  rightly  place  the  story,  one  must  first 
know  something  of.  its  history.  That  the  stories 
of  a  people  have  given  us  our  best  glimpses  of 
the  life  of  that  people  is  no  less  true  than  that 
the  character  of  its  individuals  has  been  modi- 
fied by  these  same  tales.  Sir  George  W.  Cox, 
who  has  made  a  searching  study  of  the  myths 
of  the  Aryan  nations,  says  there  is  ample  evi- 
dence that  the  popular  tales  of  Germany,  Nor- 
way and  India  at  the  present  day  were  well 
known  in  Greece  and  elsewhere  for  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era,  and  they  form  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  words,  and  have  formed  for 
thousands  of  years,  the  folk-lore,  or  learning  of 

*  Read  before  the  Eastern  Kindergarten  Association  of  Boston, 

Mass* 


the  people,  embodying  practically  their  whole 
knowledge  of  the  outer  world. 

Such  is  the  antiquity  of  the  popular  story. 

The  educated  and  the  uneducated  can  meet 
in  perfect  sympathy  upon  this  common  ground. 
The  delight  in  Norse  and  Greek  myths  is  not  a 
royal  one  —  the  man  who  traces  them  through 
the  various  languages  in  which  they  may  have 
been  clothed  may,  perchance,  hear  the  same 
stories  with  Irish  brogue  or  German  accent 
wherever  children  congregate  to  "  tell  stories." 

Odin  and  Baldner,  Freya  and  Brynhild,  Jupi- 
ter, Juno  and  lo,  with  their  loves  and  lives, 
afford  the  student  of  folk-lore  such  delight  that 
he  is  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  here  in  the 
nineteenth  century  we  have  hero-worshippers, 
miracle-believers,  myth-makers  —  all  i»  the  per- 
son of  the  little  child. 

This  period  in  the  child's  life  corresponds  to 
that  in  the  life  of  the  race  when  a  rainbow  was 
the  bridge  to  heaven,  and  a  flower  the  slipper 
of  Venus. 

We  have  no  right  to  trifle  with  our  little  myth- 
maker.  We  have  no  right  to  tell  him  all  the 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.  6 

old  stories  simply  because  they  are  old.  The 
tragedy  of  Red  Riding  Hood  is  not  better  than 
the  story  of  the  Water  Babies  simply  because 
it  is  older ;  we  must  have  some  other  standard 
of  value  for  literature  than  that  for  cheese. 

The  old  stories  fed  the  patriotism  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  they  nourished  the  morals  and  sustained 
the  courage  of  men  and  women ;  Beauty 
vanquished  the  Beast  and  restored  him  to  his 
princely  birthright  —  goodness  triumphed  —  the 
very  garments  of  the  gods  were  near  enough 
for  the  common  people  to  touch  them. 

But  we  must  have  a  specific  plan  and  purpose 
for  our  story.  It  cannot  be  better  shown  than 
by  a  few  illustrations.  The  value  of  the  per- 
sonal equation  is  sufficient  apology  for  using 
my  own  stories  for  this  purpose. 

There  was  in  my  kindergarten  many  years 
ago  a  little  boy  whose  deceit  and  cruelty  were 
quite  abnormal ;  he  would  smile  in  my  face  with 
seraphic  sweetness  while  with  his  heavy  shoe  he 
would  be  crushing  his  neighbor's  toes ;  he  would 
put  his  arm  about  a  playmate  with  a  facial  ex- 
pression of  great  tenderness  and  drive  a  pin  into 


4  THE    PLACE    OF    THE    STORY 

the  arm  he  pretended  to  caress.  All  usual  meth- 
ods of  correction  were  exhausted,  and  yet  he 
seemed  incorrigible.  At  last  I  wrote  a  story 
entitled  the  Fairy  True  Child,  into  which  I  put 
my  strongest  effort  to  reach  this  untruthful 
child.  I  told  it  to  the  class,  and  before  it  was 
concluded  this  boy's  head  was  low  upon  his 
breast,  his  cheeks  aflame  with  conscious  guilt. 
No  direct  reference  was  made  to  him ;  no  other 
child  thought  of  him  in  connection  with  the 
story.  The  next  day  he  asked  to  have  it  re- 
peated, and  his  conduct  was  noticeably  better; 
the  story  became  his  moral  tonic,  and  one  glad 
day  he  threw  his  arms  about  me,  saying  he 
wanted  to  keep  his  Fairy  True  Child  always. 
At  the  end  of  the  year,  when  he  was  to  be  pro- 
moted to  primary  school,  his  father  visited  the 
kindergarten,  begging  that  he  might  be  retained 
there  another  year;  for  something  had  appar- 
ently remade  the  child,  he  had  grown  so  gentle 
with  the  baby  at  home,  and  until  of  late  they 
had  had  grave  fears  of  his  killing  it. 

I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  feeble-minded 
child.     His  greatest  difficulty  seemed  to  lie  in  a 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.  5 

frightful  mental  inertia.  Some  of  his  thoughts 
were  beautiful,  but  he  would  dream  of  the  Lore- 
lei when  he  ought  to  be  mastering  the  multi- 
plication table,  and  his  personal  habits  were 
quite  disgusting.  He  became  fond  of  me,  and 
when  I  left  him  for  my  summer  vacation  it 
was  with  a  promise  that  I  would  write  a  story 
expressly  for  him.  Never  did  I  set  myself  a 
more  difficult  task  —  and  with  more  anxiety 
than  ever  went  with  manuscript  to  a  publisher 
I  sent  him  this  :  — 

THE  LORELEI  AND  THE  LOST  FAIRY. 

On  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  sat  a  lovely  Lor- 
elei. Her  eyes  were  blue  as  the  corn-flower,  her 
hair  floated  over  her  shoulders  like  a  cloud 
of  spun  gold,  and  her  smile  was  like  the  sun- 
shine after  rain.  Her  snowy,  but  soft,  warm 
hands  were  clasped  behind  her  head.  She  was 
resting  after  a  playful  plunge  in  the  water.  All 
these  made  her  look  like  some  painter's  dream 
of  happiness ;  at  least,  so  thought  a  tearful,  home- 
sick little  fairy  who  came  near  the  Lorelei  as  if 
to  worship,  where  he  dared  not  hope  for  com- 


O  THE    PLACE    OF    THE    STORY 

fort ;  but  the  Lorelei  saw  his  tear-stained  face, 
and  taking  him  upon  the  tip  of  her  pretty 
white  finger  she  asked  him  of  his  home  and 
his  sorrows. 

"Alas!  beautiful  Lorelei,"  said  the  tiny,  half- 
starved  fairy,  "  my  home  should  be  across  the 
sea,-  but  the  little  German  boy  who  ought  to 
shelter  and  love  me,  cruelly  neglects  and  lets 
me  wander  friendless  and  alone,  while  he  sits 
dreaming  of  you.  I  should  now  be  a  beautiful 
creature,  strong  and  glorious,  but  for  the  care- 
lessness of  one  of  our  own  German  children." 
Here  the  little  fairy  began  to  shiver  with  cold, 
and  the  Lorelei  seated  him  in  the  pink  palm  of 
one  hand,  while  she  curved  the  other  over  him 
like  a  rosy  shell,  and  breathed  upon  his  ragged 
little  figure  until  he  was  warm  again ;  then  she 
begged  him  to  tell  her  the  whole  of  his  most 
pitiful  story. 

"  I  suppose  you  know,  lovely  Lorelei,"  he 
began,  "  that  whenever  a  German  child  is  born, 
a  fairy  is  sent  to  grow  with  him,  a  fairy  which 
is  but  a  tiny  baby  fairy  as  he  is  a  tiny  baby  boy. 
But  alas !  alas !  the  fairy  cannot  grow  without 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.       •  7 

the  help  of  the  child ;  and  although  the  child 
may  grow  tall  and  strong  without  the  help  of 
the  fairy,  it  will  be  only  strength  of  body  which 
the  child  will  have,  for  he  will  never  be  great 
and  manly  without  his  fairy,  though  he  should 
become  tall  as  Karl  the  Great,  and  of  Karl  the 
Great  people  still  say,  'Ah !  there  was  a  man 
with  a  ivill,'  and  I  sometimes  wish  that  I  might 
have  been  his  fairy  companion,  for  then  I  would 
have  been  helped  to  grow,  instead  of  being 
allowed  to  wander  until  I  am  lost,"  and  the 
poor  little  fairy  cried  again ;  then  the  Lorelei 
held  the  sobbing  mite  against  her  warm  cheek, 
and  while  he  cuddled  within  a  dimple  that 
looked  like  a  rose-petal  cradle,  the  Lorelei  told 
him  she  would  go  with  him  to  find  the  German 
boy  to  whom  he  belonged,  but  the  fairy  said :  — 
"Ach !  I  fear  he  will  not  take  me,  for  I  must 
trouble  him  about  small  things  before  he  can  do 
great  ones,  and  he  often  refuses  to  hear  me 
when  I  tell  him  to  wash  his  hands,  or  properly 
dress  himself ;  his  patient  teacher  is  ready  to 
cry  with  me,  because  he  will  sit  dreaming  of 
great  men  and  beautiful  women,  when  he  should 


8  THE    PLACE    OF    THE    STORY 

be  doing  homely  duties,  and  when  he  neglects 
me,  I  starve  and  shrink,  and  what  is  worse,  he 
slips  backward  in  his  work,  getting  farther  and 
farther  from  the  great  Kaiser,  whom  he  still 
loves,  and  wishes  to  be  like.  Oh !  if  he  would 
but  take  me  home  and  listen  to  me,  he  would 
grow  beautiful  in  mind,  and  I  should  not  be  a 
ragged,  homesick  little  fairy,  but  a  very  prince 
among  my  brothers." 

The  Lorelei  looked  with  wondering  blue  eyes 
at  the  shivering  fairy,  who  had  left  the  dimple 
in  her  cheek  and  was  wringing  his  wee  hands  in 
grief  as  he  stood  on  her  finger  again. 

"Why,  what  are  you?"  she  asked. 

The  little  arms  were  folded,  and  the  tiny  fairy 
stood  quite  erect,  taking  on  for  the  moment 
some  of  the  beauty  and  dignity  which  was  his 
birthright,  as  he  answered  in  clear,  sweet  tones : 

"  I    AM    THAT    WHICH    WILLS  !  " 

"  Beautiful  Lorelei !  I  want  to  grow,  but  I 
can  only  grow  as  my  companion  helps  me,  and 
allows  me  to  help  him.  I  might  be  like  Bis- 
marck's fairy,  or  like  the  go^ft~l£2ae^s,  but  my 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.  9 

boy  thinks  when  he  ought  to  act ;  loses  himself 
in  idle  dreams  of  the  Fatherland,  when  he  ought 
to  be  doing  something  worthy  of  a  native  Ger- 
man, if  it  were  but  to  tie  his  own  shoes  as  well 
as  Karl  the  Great  could  tie  his;  and. then  he 
bows  his  head  and  cries  over  his  failures,  instead 
of  lifting  his  face  and  holding  himself  erect 
while  he  says,  i  I  loill  do  these  little  things  until 
I  can  do  great  ones,'  and  I,  his  fairy  Will,  grow 
weaker  and  smaller.  Can  you  help  me,  0  Lor- 
elei?" and  the  little  fairy  knelt  in  the  palm  of 
her  hand,  while  she  made  answer:  "Take  this 
drop  of  honey,  poor  little  wanderer;  it  will 
refresh  you,"  and  she  held  a  dewy  kaiserblume 
to  his  lips,  and  when  he  had  tasted  the  sweet 
honey  he  fell  asleep,  and  the  Lorelei  wrapped 
him  in  her  scarf,  folded  him  upon  her  breast, 
and  started  upon  a  journey.  Sometimes  she 
swam  across  waters,  sometimes  she  rested  upon 
billowy  clouds,  and  sometimes  glided  down 
the  many-lmed  curve  of  a  rainbow,  but  always 
her  face  was  toward  America  and  the  German 
boy  whose  Will  was  lost;  and  when  she  found 
him  sleeping  as  his  fairy  slept,  she  came  s.oftly 


10         THE  PLACE  OF  THE  oToKV 

through  a  stream  of  moonlight,  and,  bending 
over  his  pillow,  kissed  his  eyes,  and  ever 
after  they  more  readily  sought  the  meaning  of 
the  books ;  breathed  softly  upon  his  lips,  and 
ever  after  they  were  more  ready  with  song  and 
with  lessons;  put  her  fingers  upon  his  ears, 
and  ever  after  they  were  more  attentive  to  his 
teacher's  words;  and  the  fairy  awoke,  not  on 
the  bosom  of  the  Lorelei,  but  in  his  own  home 
in  Ludwig's  brain,  where  he  grows  more  and 
more  princely,  and  Ludwig  more  and  more 
manly,  trying  hard,  so  very  hard,  to  keep  the 
dear  little  fairy  on  his  throne. 


The  effect  upon  his  will  was  better  than  I 
dared  hope.  His  teacher  wrote  me  that  she 
read  it  to  him  every  third  day,  always  on 
condition  of  his  having  earned  the  right  to 
hear  it  by  obedience  to  his  own  good  fairy  Will. 
This  supplied  the  needed  stimulus  for  weeks  in 
succession. 

I  knew  a  delightful,  imaginative  boy  of  seven 
in  a  Western  city.  He  seemed  ideally  polite  and 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.  11 

obedient  to  his  parents,  so  I  was  quite  shocked 
when  his  mother  asked  if  I  would  advise  her  to 
chastise  him  for  an  annoying  habit  in  which  he 
persisted ;  viz.,  putting  on  his  shoes  and  button- 
ing them  every  morning  before  putting  on  his 
trousers,  which  of  course  would  not  go  on  over 
the  shoes;  and  this  daily  blunder  rendered  him 
quite  miserable  as  well  as  his  parents.  He 
would  cry  with  shame  and  disappointment  be- 
cause he  missed  his  breakfast  with  his  father, 
promising  to  try  to  remember,  but  so  regularly 
forgetting  that  his  parents  began  to  suspect 
some  latent  stubbornness  if  not  deceit  in  the  oc- 
currence. When  I  left  this  hospitable  house  I 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  child,  who  was  fond  of  all 
military  displays  and  stories,  telling  him  I  was 
sorry  to  hear  that  General  Bad  Habit  was  quar- 
tered in  his  house ;  that  I  greatly  feared  my 
little  friend  would  be  reduced  to  the  ranks  if  he 
did  not  make  immediate  resistance ;  might  he 
not  use  my  letter  as  a  flag  of  truce  to  be  placed 
in  his  shoe  over  night,  informing  General  Bad 
Habit  tliat  our  little  boy  proposed  not  only  to 


12         THE  PLACE  OF  THE  STORY 

resist  him,  but  to  take  away  his  title,  sword, 
and  shoulder  straps. 

The  flag  of  truce  was  used  in  the  shoe  two  or 
three  nights,  then  placed  on  the  mantel,  and  in 
less  than  a  week  entirely  removed,  and  a  letter 
from  the  triumphant  child  informed  me  that 
Bad  Habit  was  reduced  to  the  ranks,  and  my 
friend  was  master  of  the  situation !  Cases 
might  be  indefinitely  multiplied,  proving  the 
value  of  stories  not  only  in  education,  but  in 
discipline  of  the  child. 

We  have  no  right  to  tell  stories  thought- 
lessly, nor  is  the  pleasure  of  the  audience  a 
valid  test  of  the  worth  of  our  story. 

We  have  no  right  to  isolate  a  story  in  a  day's 
life ;  and  just  here  lies  the  power  of  the  story 
for  a  child  —  its  vital  relation  to  other  things 
in  that  child's  life.  There  is  no  bad  habit,  no 
wrong  tendency  or  weak  point  that  may  not  be 
attacked  or  propped  by  a  right  use  of  the  story; 
no  fact  in  nature  or  principle  of  right  which 
may  not  be  treated  in  the  form  of  a  story. 

There  is  some  fear  among  the  most  'thought- 
ful, that  our  age  of  facts  and  statistics,  of  turn- 


IN    EARLY    EDUCATION.  13 

ing  our  wheels  with  Jupiter's  bolts,  is  destined 
to  crush  even  the  fancy  of  little  children.  But 
a  butcher's  errand  boy  recently  asked  me  what 
really  became  of  Europa  after  she  rode  into  the 
sea ;  he  had  looked  the  whole  book  through  and 
was  afraid  Cadmus  never  found  her.  A  lisping 
child  of  three  years  clasped  his  arms  about  my 
neck  after  a  simple  story,  and  said,  "  More ! 
more  !  more  ! "  And  to  draw  him  out  I  said, 
"More  of  what?" 

And  under  his  breath  he  whispered,  "  More  of 
God." 

A  child  living  in  the  shadow  of  one  of  our 
great  universities  drew  for  me  a  picture  of  God 
with  head  of  sky,  and  suns  for  eyes,  his  cloud 
garments  buttoned  with  stars. 

Need  we  fear?  Surely  neither  poetry  nor 
religion  will  die  out  of  our  world  if  we  permit 
a  little  child  to  trim  our  lamp  of  life. 


THE  STUDY  OF  CHILDREN.1 
I. 

THE  CHILD  A  VOLUME  TO  BE  READ. 

What  we   are  able  to  do  for  children  is  measured   by  the 
love  we  bear  them.  —  MAUAM    PAI-E    CAUPEXTIEB. 

WHEN  the  disciples  disputed  about  precedence 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  the  Master  set  a 
little  child  in  their  midst,  saying,  "  Except  ye 
become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  in  nowise 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  And 
before  dismissing  the  child  he  gave  utterance 
to  those  wonderful,  perhaps  mystical  words : 
"In  heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the 
face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

It  is  this  volume  of  child-nature  which  I  wish 
you   to   study  with  me  —  a  volume  written  in 

'Course  of  lectures  given  in  Detroit,  Michigan. 
U 


THE  CHILD  A  VOLUME  TO  BE  READ.    15 

many  languages,  and  often  translated  to  suit  the 
mood  of  the  careless  reader.  To  one  woman 
her  child  is  a  comic  scrap-book,  and  she  repeats 
and  remembers  all  he  says  or  does  that  appeals 
to  her  own  sense  pf  humor ;  to  another  he  is 
a  book  of  mysticism,  and  his  simplest  inquiries 
or  most  logical  deductions  are  treated  as  prophe- 
cies or  oracles  ;  to  another  he  is  a  precious  reve- 
lation of  divine  love  and  mystery  ;  while  alas ! 
to  some  he  is  only  a  little  animal,  his  playfulness 
more  troublesome  than  the  kitten's,  because  he 
cannot  be  thrust  out-of-doors  when  he  annoys, 
and  his  chatter  more  trying  than  the  sparrows' 
of  early  morning  because  it  is  indoors. 

But  the  continuous  and  careful  observation  of 
children  is  in  great  demand,  and  a  mother's 
opportunity  is  better  than  that  of  any  other 
student.  The  work  needs  the  scientific  spirit 
and  some  preparatory  training,  but  woman  is 
surely  equal  to  such  a  task. 

Miss  Buckley  is  an  acknowledged  authority 
in  one  branch  of  science,  and  Caroline  Herschel 
in  another.  Art,  literature,  even  politics  and 
the  professions,  are  adorned  with  the  names  of 


16  TI1E    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

\vi  >men  ;  but  in  this  particular  field  of  investiga- 
tion we  have  little  or  nothing  that  will  stand 
the  scientific  test.  Mothers  have  observed  their 
own  children,  failed  to  record  their  observations, 
and  can  give  us  but  haphazard  and  untrust- 
worthy accounts  even  of  physical  growth,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  more  complex  development 
of  wrill  and  intellect.  That  which  has  been 
observed  and  transcribed  puts  us  under  obli- 
gation to  the  men  who  have  done  much  which 
we  have  left  undone  in  the  nursery. 

Plato  saw  a  divine  meaning  in  the  plays  of 
children,  and  did  not  disdain  to  consider  the 
toys  and  games  of  children  as  affecting  char- 
acter, and  would  have  had  no  stories  told  the 
children  that  were  not  first  examined  and 
approved  by  legislators. 

Rousseau  revolutionized  society  in  France  by 
his  espousal  of  Baby's  rights ;  Pestalozzi  broke 
the  paper  chain  that  bound  the  children  to 
their  primers,  and  gave  this  advice  to  mothers : 
"  Teach  your  children  to  pray,  that  they  may  be 
willing  to  work ;  and  to  work  that  they  may 
never  grow  tired  of  praying."  Froebel  lived 


THE  CHILD  A  VOLUME  TO  BE  EEAD.    17 

with  the  children,  studying  popular  nursery 
melodies  and  games,  with  their  effects  upon 
mental  development ;  and  his  spirit  is  revo- 
lutionizing the  primary  schools,  not  only  of 
Germany,  but  of  America.  Darwin  has  given 
us  a  "  Sketch  of  an  Infant "  ;  Sully  a  short 
chapter  on  Baby  Linguistics.  We  are  indebted 
to  G.  Stanley  Hall  for  an  impetus  to  study  for 
ourselves,  no  less  than  for  his  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  which  is  as  yet  so  meagre 
that  we  can  find  little  that  is  authoritative,  though 
there  is  much  which  is  speculative.  Preyer,  a 
German  philosopher,  has  carefully  observed  the 
development  of  the  senses,  will,  and  intellect 
of  his  own  child,  giving  some  comparisons  with 
other  children  coming  under  his  notice ;  and 
the  book  is  a  revelation  of  what  we  do  not 
know.  To  make  his  book  and  Perez's  "  First 
Three  Years  of  Childhood  "  really  of  the  greatest 
service  to  us,  wre  need  enough  investigation  in 
the  same  lines  for  a  basis  of  statistics. 

All  this  is  the  work  of  men  who  might  cer- 
tainly excuse  themselves  from  such  effort  with 
the  apology  which  mothers  will  make  —  occupa- 


18  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

tion  in  other  directions.  Women  have  written 
books,  and  many  of  them  admirable  ones,  for 
children ;  they  have  given  us  works  on  family 
government  and  methods  of  education ;  but 
what  have  we  from  their  graceful  and  ready 
pens  that  helps  to  a  knowledge  of  early  lan- 
guage, the  imitative  faculty,  the  rhythmic  sense, 
or  that  period  of  savagery  that  sometimes 
enthralls  even  the  best  boys  for  a  season  ? 

Usually  woman  comes  in  much  closer  contact 
with  children  than  man ;  her  nature  fits  her 
for  more  sympathetic  interpretation  of  all  the 
activities  of  childhood,  and  her  sympathy  need 
not  vitiate  her  scientific  exactitude  of  transcrip- 
tion ;  for,  like  the  students  of  child  life  in  the 
Worcester  State  Normal  School,  she  can  spare 
us  her  own  conclusions,  giving  the  simple  facts 
observed. 

We  rear  children,  and  we  teach  them,  but 
how  closely  have  we  studied  the  deceptions  of 
children  that  we  may  understand  motives,  and 
so  treat  the  'child  for  the  cause  and  not  for  the 
symptom  ?  Many  a  conscientious  mother  and 
teacher  knows  no  middle  ground  between  a  lie 


THE  CHILD  A  VOLUME  TO  BE  BEAD.    19 

which  may  be  shockingly  immoral  and  danger- 
ous to  the  child's  soul,  or  harmless  except  as 
it  is  misunderstood  by  older  people.  I  perfectly 
remember  two  lies,  told  in  very  early  childhood, 
that  affected  my  conscience  very  'differently 
without  outside  influence.  I  was  sent  by  my 
mother  to  get  an  oak  leaf  for  a  pattern  for 
needle-work,  and  near  the  oak  shrub  I  saw  a 
snake  which  so  frightened  me  that  I  ran  home 
without  the  leaf.  My  brothers  met  me  before  I 
reached  my  mother,  and,  as  all  snakes  were 
'saugers  to  me,  I  told  them  I  had  seen  a  'sauger. 
They  knew  a  difference  between  snakes  and 
their  habits,  and,  boy-like,  wanted  to  tease  me, 
and  said,  "'twas  no  'sauger  —  it  didn't  have  a 
red  ring  around  its  neck,  now  did  it?"  My 
heated  imagination  saw  just  such  a  serpent 
as  soon  as  their  words  were  spoken,  and  I  de- 
clared it  had  a  ring  about  its  neck.  Well,  they 
urged,  it  didn't  have  great  scales  like  a  fish,  and 
it  wasn't  a  'sauger  at  all.  I  sobbed  that  it  had 
scales,  and  the  teasing  boys  added  that  it  must 
have  had  a  little  bell  on  its  neck  then, 
and  I  saw  the  bell,  the  red  ring,  and  the 


20  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

scales  in  my  imagination,  and  was  unable  to 
separate  the  mental  picture  from  the  real  sight, 
and  have  to  this  day  as  vivid  a  mental  image  of 
a  snake  of  that  description  as  I  have  of  any 
grass  snake  that  ever  glided  across  my  path.  I 
remember  that  my  brothers  gravely  accused  me 
of  lying,  but  I  did  not  understand  them,  and  my 
peace  of  mind  was  undisturbed.  The  other  lie 
was  never  discovered,  I  was  never  charged  with 
it ;  but  my  own  moral  nature,  self-arraigned, 
created  a  cyclone  of  grief  and  terror.  It  was 
fear  of  the  lie  itself,  for  I  had  never  been  chas- 
tised, and  have  no  recollection  of  the  moral  teach- 
ing which  must  have  preceded  it.  I  was  very 
fond  of  babies,  and,  being  the  youngest  of  the 
family  at  that  time,  a  baby  cousin  across  the 
way  received  my  care  and  affection.  My  mother 
had  to  restrain  me  from  making  myself  trouble- 
some, and  I  could  only  go  when  my  aunt  ex- 
pressly wished  my  services.  One  afternoon 
mother  was  going  away  to  tea,  and  I  boldly  an- 
nounced that  my  aunt  was  very  busy  and  had 
asked  me  to  spend  an  hour  with  the  baby,  to 
which  my  mother  readily  assented.  I  went,  not 


THE  CHILD  A  VOLUME  TO  BE  READ.    21 

to  the  baby,  but  by  a  circuitous  route  to  my 
father's  barn,  crept  behind  one  of  the  great 
doors,  which  I  drew  as  close  to  me  as  I  could, 
vaguely  wishing  the  barn  and  the  hay-stacks 
would  cover  me  ;  there  I  cried  and  moaned,  I  do 
not  know  how  many  hours,  and  when  I  went  to 
bed  I  said  my  prayers  between  sobs,  refusing  to 
tell  my  mother  why  I  wept.  We  need  compara- 
tive reminiscences  to  aid  us  in  a  study  of  the 
children  we  daily  meet.  Miss  Elizabeth  P.  Pea- 
body  has  something  valuable  in  this  direction, 
not  yet  ready  for  publication,  however,  and  she 
has  given  us  some  excellent  psychological  notes, 
but  they  cover  a  period  in  one  child's  life  which 
is  too  brief  for  generalization. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  tells  us  much  about  the17 
sensitiveness  of  ants  and  bees  to  color ;  Gra- 
ber  proves  that  some  caterpillars  show  strong 
color  preferences.  What  do  we  know  of  Baby's 
color  sense  ?  We  have  only  lately  learned  that 
the  majority  of  children  of  five  years  of  age 
prefer  yellow. 

There  are  dangers  to  be  avoided  in  the  obser- 
vations so  much  needed.     Do  not  use  pencil  and 


22  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

paper  in  the  presence  of  the  child.  Keep  the 
observations  of  each  child  by  itself,  with  age, 
sex,  and  nationality  of  the  child  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  the  dates  of  succeeding  observations. 
Do  not  repeat  the  child's  sayings  or  doings  in 
his  presence.  Do  not  stimulate  him  in  the  in- 
teresting and  entertaining  directions  of  growth. 
The  training  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the 
study  of  the  child,  and  we  are  not  modelling 
in  clay,  nor  chiselling  in  marble.  We  are  not 
writing  on  fair  white  paper ;  heredity  has  had 
the  first  opportunit}^  at  the  page,  and  the 
mind  is  crossed  and  recrossed  with  hieroglyphic 
characters.  It  is  our  duty  and  our  privilege 
to  decipher,  perhaps  to  erase,  and  to  such 
study  and  such  labor  you  are  invited. 


II. 

PHYSICAL   PHENOMENA   AN   ALPHABET   OF 
FEELING. 

People  are  beginning  to  see  that  the  first  requisite  to  success 
in  life  is  to  be  a  good  animal.  —  SPENCER. 

EVEN  the  untutored  mother  responds  to  much 
of  the  natural  language  of  her  child;  mothers 
have  ever  crooned  to  their  infants,  patted  or 
trotted  them  as  they  fancied  their  physical  con- 
dition demanded.  The  nursery  songs  to  be 
analyzed  by  us  are  those  written  by  Froebel,  or 
by  pupils  who  have  imbibed  his  spirit.  These 
particular  melodies  are  recommended  because 
they  are  based  upon  popular  nursery  songs.  It 
is  well  known  to  special  students  in  this  direc- 
tion that  Froebel  went  from  house  to  house 
among  the  German  peasants,  collecting  from 
mothers,  nurses,  and  children  even,  the  frag- 
ments of  song  that  have  been  handed  down 
from  mother  to  child  for  many  generations  ;  this 

23 


24  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

mass  of  material  he  submitted  to  his  own  keen 
but  reverent  criticism,  culling  that  which  was 
educational,  casting  out  that  which  was  delete- 
rious, giving  us  his  revision  and  commentaries 
in  his  "  Mutter  und  Kose  Lieder."  We  are  so 
doubtful  of  the  practicability  of  new  theories 
that  it  seems  but  fair  to  preface  this  study 
with  the  statement  that  these  games  have  been 
tried  by  believing  mothers,  and  skeptical  fathers 
have  admitted  their  value. 

The  first  one  to  be  considered  is  that  given 
/for  development  of  the  limbs.  The  child  lies 
upon  a  mattress,  with  legs  unencumbered,  and 
strikes  out  vigorously  with  his  little  feet.  In 
earliest  infancy  these  movements  are  reflex,  but 
they  are  never  meaningless  ;  the  child  wishes  — 
do  not  confuse  his  vague  desire  with  formulated 
thought  —  the  baby  lives  in  his  feelings  at  first, 
and  deeply  rooted  in  this  feeling  is  that  which 
he  wishes,  viz.  to  measure  his  strength.  He  can- 
not so  measure  his  strength  unless  some  object  is 
interposed  against  which  he  may  push  and  kick. 
The  mother  may  give  her  chest,  or  she  may  put 
a  cushion  between  his  feet  and  the  footboard 


PHYSICAL    PHENOMENA.  25 

of  bed  or  crib ;  but  when  he  pushes  those  little 
feet  back  and  forth  under  his  petticoats,  he  is 
giving  expression  to  a  feeling  to  which  mother 
or  nurse  should  respond.  The  song  for  this 
game  is  adapted  to  German  peasant  life,  but 
any  mother  can  replace  it  with  something 
equally  adapted  to  her  surroundings  :  — 

"Come,  you  little  kicking  toes, 
Flax  and  hemp  we  will  strike  with  blows ; 
Oil  for  our  lamp  there  flows. 
Clear  it  burns  and  clearer  grows, 
When  mother's  love  so  clear  and  strong 
Guards  little  baby  all  night  long." 

The  song  is  of  great  value,  but  the  song  with- 
out the  object  against  which  the  feet  may  be 
pressed  would  be  of  little  value.  Feeling  lies 
deeper  than  thinking ;  the  physical  need  fore- 
shadows the  spiritual ;  it  is  therefore  no  far- 
fetched conclusion  that  the  child  left  to  kick  the 

air  without  this  resisting  force  might  get  thereby 

i 
a  lamentable  moral  twist.     St.  Paul  spoke  as  to 

children  concerning  those  who  seek  the  Lord,  if 
haply  they  might  feel  after  him  and  find  him, 


26  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

though  he  is  not  far  from  any  of  us.  We  some- 
times say,  glibly  enough,  that  the  parent  stands 
to  the  infant  as  God  to  us,  and  then  we  are 
indifferent  when  asked  to  apply  this  in  our  prac- 
tical, every-day  relations  with  children. 

The  next  game  is  to  lift  the  child  from  the 
mattress  almost  to  the  sitting  posture,  and, 
without  removing  the  hands  from  underneath, 
so  slacken  the  hold  that  the  child  will  get  an 
exhilarating  shock  —  a  brief  instant  of  separa- 
tion from  the  mother's  hold,  and  a  certain  re- 
turn to  her  loving,  waiting  arms.  Again  the 
feeling  underlies  the  thought,  and  our  mature 
experience  should  hallow  this  game  for  us  and 
the  children.  A  momentary  fear  that  the  "  ever- 
lasting arms"  are  not  underneath  us,  we  find 
has  been  a  high-tide  moment  when  we  review 
our  lives ;  and  the  spiritual  development  of  the 
child  is  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  our 
own. 

As  soon  as  the  wee  hand  can  grasp  its 
mother's  finger,  a  small  worsted  ball,  with 
string  attached,  may  be  given  the  child,  by 
which  the  muscles  of  the  hand  will  be  strength- 


PHYSICAL    PHENOMENA.  27 

ened.  There  are  practical  reasons  for  giving  a 
ball  to  the  child,  which  we  will  consider  before 
the  theoretical  ones.  He  cannot  hurt  himself 
with  the  ball ;  it  may  be  dropped  or  flung  with- 
out injury  to  others  or  to  furniture;  it  can 
make  no  noise;  it  may  be  carried  to  the  mouth 
without  injury  to  child  or  plaything. 

That  the  ball  has  been  a  fascinating  toy,  out- 
living the  rattle  and  the  Noah's  ark,  rests  upon 
a  deeper  reason.  There  must  be  some  subtle 
satisfaction  to  us  in  its  unity ;  the  form  lends 
itself  to  the  laws  of  the  physical  universe  more 
readily  than  others,  or  it  would  not  be  found  in 
our  veins  as  in  the  rivers,  among  the  planets  as 
in  mechanics,  revealed  to  us  by  the  microscope 
no  less  than  by  the  telescope.  From  nursery  to 
university  the  boy  carries  his  ball,  modifying  it 
to  suit  his  needs  as  his  skill  is  developed,  and 
the  development  of  skill  involves  mental 
growth. 

In  the  cradle  the  ball  may  become  a  centre 
of  attraction,  around  which  impressions  both 
physical  and  spiritual  may  cluster.  Place  it  in 
the  little  hand,  and  withdraw  it  again  and  again, 


28  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDKI.V 

singing  some  of  the  Froebel  ball  songs,  and  the 
child  will  get  its  earliest  vague  impressions  of 
the  me  and  the  not-me ;  of  time,  present,  past, 
and  future,  and  of  space.  We  cannot,  even  with 
a  scientific  imagination,  place  ourselves  back  of 
our  formulated  thought  into  Baby's  feeling,  but 
we  read  in  his  satisfied  or  expectant  eye,  Some- 
thing not  me  is  here ;  it  has  been  here,  it  will 
come  again.  In  this  play  do  not  suffer  the  ball 
to  be  withdrawn  long  enough  to  cause  impa- 
tience ;  and  employ  it  but  a  few  moments  daily, 
as  an  educational  influence,  to  be  used  with  dis- 
cretion. It  has  proven  potent  in  crystallizing 
thought  in  the  brain  of  the  feeble-minded  child. 
Feeling  leads  to  expression,  and  we  have  tried 
to  deepen  the  one  by  helping  the  other. 

The  ball  has  another  important  educational 
use.  Little  is  really  known  of  the  significance 
of  color;  it  has  been  left  largely  to  the  poet's 
realm;  but  Science  has  fixed  her  eye  upon  it, 
and  we  wait  for  her  latest  word.  Perhaps  noth- 
ing more  interesting  has  been  given  us  than  the 
array  of  individual  peculiarities  of  color  percep- 
tion as  furnished  by  Galton  in  his  "  Inquiries 


PHYSICAL    PHENOMENA.  29 

into  the  Human  Faculty,"  for  we  must  care 
more  that  some  man  sees  the  month  of  January 
as  a  blue  circle,  or  the  letters  of  his  own  name 
in  various  shades,  than  that  certain  caterpillars 
show  a  marked  preference  in  colors;  we  must 
care  more  that  the  majority  of  little  children 
recognize  yellow  earlier  than  blue  than  that 
earthworms  and  ants  are  unmistakably  suscep- 
tible to  colors,  as  Graber  and  Sir  John  Lubbock 
have  proven.  Leaving  these  scientific  observa- 
tions, and  taking  the  move  familiar  poetry  of 
color,  we  must  admit  that  the  revelation  con- 
cerning the  walls  of  the  New  Jerusalem  has  some 
foundation  in  fact,  or  the  fancy  is  an  empty 
superstition ;  that  the  significance  attached  to 
color  in  altar  cloths  and  church  decoration  has 
something  upon  which  to  rest  beside  tradition, 
or  it  would  not  have  survived  until  the  present 
day.  Putting  aside  the  associations  of  colors 
and  their  possible  spiritual  meanings,  we  cannot 
ignore  their  physical  effects. 

Some  people  are  nauseated  by  certain  com- 
binations of  color ;  some  have  sick  headache  in 
consequence  of  inspection  of  shades ;  people  in 


30  THE    STUDY    OF    CIIILDEEN. 

normal  health  find  it  impossible  to  apply  them- 
selves to  close  mental  effort  if  the  curtains  of 
the  room  are  of  an  annoying  shade. 

Preyer's  child  was  unmistakably  impressed  by 
a  rose-colored  curtain  on  the  twenty-third  day 
after  its  birth,  and  Preyer  says :  "  In  my  obser- 
vations I  have  had  especially  in  mind  the  promi- 
nent part  played  in  the  mental  development  of 
the  child  at  the  earliest  period,  by  the  sense  of 
sight." 

If  color  appeals  to  the  sense  of  sight  so  early, 
ought  we  not  to  take  it  as  a  valuable  aid  in 
early  education  ?  and  in  what  better  form  can 
we  embody  color  than  in  that  of  the  ball  ? 

Passing  to  a  later  stage  of  development,  we 
have  Froebel's  version  of  "Pat-a-cake  "  :  — 

"  Baby  wants  to  try  to  make  us 
Such  a  cake  as  he  can  bake  us. 
Pat  the  cake ;    I'll  show  you  how. 
Baker  says,  '  It's  quite  time  now ; 
Bring  the  dough,  as  you  are  told, 
Ere  my  oven  gets  too  cold.' 
Baker,  here  is  a  nice  large  cake 
You  for  Baby  so  kindly  will  bake. 
Deep  in  the  oven,  my  little  one, 
Push  in  your  cake;  it  will  soon  be  done." 


PHYSICAL    PHENOMENA.  31 

With  this  and  kindred  games,  the  child  is 
brought  into  conscious  relations  with  the  outside 
world,  and  may  be  given  valuable  impressions 
of  the  interdependence  of  mankind.  We  should 
not  forget  the  moral  power  of  stories,  and  we  may 
closely  connect  with  this  song  Dr.  E.  E.  Hale's 
story  of  "  Our  Daily  Bread."  An  old  nursery 
tale,  which  I  never  saw  in  print  until  I  adapted 
and  published  it  in  my  own  book  of  stories,  im- 
presses the  -same  lesson  of  interdependence. 

There  is,  we  know,  a  dangerous  undercurrent 
of  contempt  of  service  which  mothers  find 
difficult  to  eradicate ;  it  is  believed  that  the 
wholesome  use  of  such  songs  with  talks  about 
the  baker,  the  miller,  the  farmer,  and  all  who 
contribute  to  the  furnishing  of  the  bread,  and 
the  dependence  of  all  these  upon  the  Giver  of 
rain  and  sunshine  would  fortify  the  child  against 
future  contempt  of  those  who  perform  for  us 
any  service  whatsoever. 

The  growing  mind  reaches  upward  ;  let  us 
furnish  thought-centres  that  are  above  rather 
than  below  its  grasp.  We  may  well  take  the 
little  child  that  is  in  our  midst  and  reverently 
consider  it. 


III. 

THOUGHT  SUCCEEDING  FEELING;  RHYTHMIC 
SENSE  AN  INTELLECTUAL  LEVKK. 

Our  aim  should  be  to  present  to  the  mind  all  knowledge  in 
such  a  way  that  it  may  help  our  pupils  along  to  the  undiscov- 
ered pole  of  human  destiny. — G.  STANLEY  HALL. 

OUR  strongest  intellectual  barks  are,  after  all, 
safely  anchored  in  our  feelings.  The  baby  has 
many  sensations  both  pleasant  and  unpleasant 
before  that  mental  activity  which  we  call  thought 
is  unmistakably  begun,  for  we  are  not  of  the 
"  intueetion  folks  who  will  have  it  that  a  babby's 
got  as  much  mind  as  Mr.  Gladstone,  ef  it  only 
knew  it." 

The  reasoning  process,  however,  is  well  estab- 
lished before  the  baby  can  put  his  thoughts  into 
words. 

Preyer  noticed  an  indisputable  acoustic  ex- 
periment in  a  child  less  than  a  year  old.  The 
child  struck  with  a  spoon  upon  a  plate,  acci- 

32 


THOUGHT    SUCCEEDING    FEELING.  33 

dentally  touching  the  plate  with  the  other  hand 
at  the  same  time,  thus  dulling  the  sound ;  the 
plate  and  spoon  changed  hands,  and  the  effect  of 
the  opposite  hand  was  tried  upon  the  plate,  the 
child  listening  expectantly,  and  repeating  the 
experiment  many  times.  Any  observer,  even 
the  most  careless,  must  have  noticed  a  child's 
eager  inquiry  into  causality,  following  with  his 
eye  the  string  from  which  a  ball  is  suspended  to 
the  point  of  suspension ;  looking  for  the  moving 
hand  or  figure  which  casts  a  shadow,  or  for  the 
person  whose  voice  is  heard  from  another  room. 
The  crying  of  a  child  to  be  taken  out  when  he 
sees  his  cap  and  cloak  shows  that  he  has  drawn 
some  logical  conclusions  from  past  experience. 
It  is  only  by  observation  of  the  child  and  his 
expressions  that  we  can  arrive  at  certain  knowl- 
edge of  his  capacities.  We  may  know  some 
general  laws  of  development,  but  there  is  such  a 
wide  difference  between  cases  that  the  need  of 
special  study  of  the  individual  will  probably 
never  be  less  urgent,  although  more  definite 
knowledge  of  general  rules  will  be  of  great 
service. 


34  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

We  shall  now  consider  the  rhythmic  sense,  in- 
herent in  all  children,  and  its  importance  as  an 
intellectual  lever.  We  know  that  the  outer 
forces  of  nature  are  subject  to  a  law  of  rhythm ; 
there  seems  the  throb  of  a  pulse  in  fire,  and  a 
steady  rise  and  fall  of  sound  in  the  cataract  of 
Niagara ;  the  cyclone  moves  under  a  law  of 
time  that  we  practically  observe,  calculating  its 
progress  and  preparing  for  its  arrival ;  a  law  of 
harmony  governs  the  planets  in  their  courses,  so 
that  "  the  music  of  the  spheres  "  is  not  merely  a 
figure  of  speech ;  our  hearts  beat  with  such 
rhythm  that  any  departure  from  its  regularity 
gives  us  great  alarm.  Something  in  the  child's 
nature  corresponds  to  that  outward  harmony, 
/so  that  rhythm  calls  unto  rhythm,  as  deep  unto 
deep.  This  explains  why  the  child  is  hushed  by 
rhythmic  movement,  which  need  not  be  voiced, 
as  we  daily  see  in  the  nursery,  where  the  child 
is  patted,  swayed  in  the  arms,  or  rocked  instinc- 
tively "  in  time."  Every  nurse  feels  that  a 
sudden  stopping  of  the  swing  of  the  cradle  would 
startle  the  baby.  Nor  do  we  outgrow  this 
pleasure  in  rhythmic  movement.  Sing,  if  you 


THOUGHT    SUCCEEDING    FEELING.  35 

please,  a  few  bars  of  any  familiar  air,  agreeing 
to  stop  instantly  at  a  signal  from  another,  and 
let  the  signal  come  before  the  musical  pause  is 
reached,  and  your  own  disagreeable  sensation 
will  bear  witness  to  that  inner  sense  which 
should  not  be  rudely  jarred. 

We  see  that  the  mother's  instinct  leads  her  to 
sing  to  the  child,  and  to  give  him  rhythmic 
movements ;  but  we  need  an  intellectual  and 
moral  power  added  to  the  physical  one,  and  this 
is  found  in  some  of  the  songs  recommended. 
Every  child  is  strongly  attracted  to  the  sound 
and  the  movement  of  the  clock  pendulum.  A 
little  talk  about  the  clocks  that  told  the  wrong 
time  brought  the  attention  of  an  untruthful 
child  to  truthfulness,  and,  without  a  word  from 
the  outside  as  to  his  habit,  the  child,  though  but 
four  years  old,  would  blush  and  correct  himself, 
on  beginning  a  false  statement,  when  his  teacher 
glanced  ruefully  at  the  clock,  which  became  a 
symbol  of  truth  to  him. 

If  we  attend  to  the  things  which  command  the 
child's  interest,  we  may  find  in  them  many  an 
aid  to  good  government.  By  a  little  study  we 


36  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

may  abstract  from  many  things  the  one  point  of 
interest  —  as,  for  instance,  the  life  in  the  flight 
of  birds,  in  the  movement  of  fish,  and  in  the  cat 
or  dog,  is  undoubtedly  that  which  attracts  the 
child ;  there  is  no  life  without  movement,  and  no 
movement  which  is  not  subject  to  the  rhythmic 
law.  If,  therefore,  we  intelligently  use  this  law, 
we  gain  something  in  the  increasingly  difficult 
business  of  home  management. 

Preyer's  baby  noticed  the  ticking  of  a  clock 
on  the  one  hundred  and  first  day  of  its  life.  I 
showed  a  clock  pendulum  to  a  child  nine 
months  old,  and,  taking  his  hand  in  mine, 
moved  it  back  and  forth  in  time  with  the  pendu- 
lum, singing  one  of  the  tick-tack  songs  :  — 

"  Come  and  see,  come  and  see 
How  merrily  the  clock  doth  go. 
The  pendulum  swings  to  and  fro, 
And  never  from  its  plan  doth  go ; 
Swings  first  to  the  left  and  then  to  the  right, 
All  the  day  and  all  the  night, 
Tick-tack,  tick-tack,  tick-tack." 

This  was  repeated  three  or  four  times  in  one 
day ;  the  following  day,  when  he  heard  the  air, 


THOUGHT    SUCCEEDING    FEELING.  37 

he  turned  his  face  to  the  clock,  and  on  the  third 
day  moved  his  own  hand  on  hearing  the  words 
sung,  looking  wishfully  at  the  clock. 

I  gave  my  watch  to  a  baby  six  months  old, 
and  she  carried  it  to  her  mouth ;  I  took  her 
hand  in  mine  and  carried  the  watch  to  her  ear, 
then  to  mine,  repeating  this  many  times,  and 
on  letting  go  of  her  hand  she  continued  the 
movement  with  evident  pleasure,  although  she 
sometimes  made  irregular  movements  toward 
her  mouth,  from  muscular  habit.  Her  mother 
joined  the  game,  and  the  baby's  hand  was 
directed  by  mine  to  her  ear,  then  to  my  own, 
and  lastly  to  the  child's.  A  few  successive 
times  and  the  child  was  soon  able  to  make  this 
circuit,  but  before  she  was  tired,  or  had  satisfied 
herself  with  her  new  power,  the  mother  turned 
her  ear  away  from  the  proffered  hand,  and 
seized  the  watch  in  her  own  mouth ;  which  so 
enraged  the  baby  investigator  that  the  pretty 
and  useful  play  was  interrupted  by  angry  shrieks, 
which  perhaps  amused  the  mother  as  much  as 
any  other  exhibition  of  her  child's  nature ;  but 
to  the  thoughtful  person  it  seems  like  a  stupid 


38  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

interference  in  an  intellectual  pursuit,  and  a  prov- 
ocation to  anger,  which,  if  frequently  repeated, 
would  demoralize  a  child. 

There  are  a  few  songs  in  which  the  rhythm  is 
so  strongly  marked  that  they  are  of  great  value 
in  rousing  the  child's  intellectual  activities. 
"The  Mill,"  "See-Saw,"  "The  Carpenter," 
"  Shoemaker,"  and  "  Blacksmith,"  have  proven 
most  helpful.  In  the  Boston  School  for  Feeble- 
minded, the  children  in  the  kindergarten  have 
an  especial  liking  for  the  "  Blacksmith,"  which 
struck  me  as  remarkably  coinciding  with  the 
tastes  of  f eeble-minded  children  under  my  own 
observation ;  the  rhythm  and  the  open  vowel 
sounds  of  the  chorus  ("  Strike,  boys  !  strike,  boys, 
while  the  iron  is  red  hot ")  furnish  some  children 
their  first  opportunity  of  enunciation,  and,  like 
other  children,  they  rejoice  in  every  acquire- 
ment. I  went  from  child  to  child  as  they  were 
singing  and  gesticulating,  and  all  were  gleefully 
uttering,  "  i  oy,  i  oy,  i  i  ed  ot."  Marching  songs 
are  also  valuable  aids  in  mental  development.  I 
took  a  feeble-minded  child  of  six  years  and  nine 
months  in  my  arms,  marching  to  and  fro  while 


THOUGHT    SUCCEEDING    FEELING.  39 

I  sang  little  marching  airs,  stopping  long  enough 
between  songs  for  her  to  get  an  impression  of 
the  difference  between  moving  and  standing,  and 
it  was  but  a  few  days  before  she  began  to  make 
rhythmical  noises  as  we  marched,  and  in  a  short 
time  she  was  able  to  walk  with  the  aid  of  my 
hand  to  steady  her  movements,  although  she 
had  never  before  been  roused  to  any  desire 
for  walking.  With  the  help  of  these  and  kin- 
dred aids  her  will  has  been  roused  to  hopeful 
activity,  and  she  not  only  acts  in  response  to 
her  will,  but  has  arrived  at  some  healthful  in- 
hibitions. 

There  is  room  for  much  study  of  the  sensibility 
of  children  to  music ;  the  effect  of  minor  tones 
upon  children  has  only  been  noticed  in  isolated 
cases.  I  lately  saw  a  baby  of  three  months  that 
would  put  up  its  lip  in  most  pathetic  fashion 
when  his  father  said,  "  Poor  little  boy  !  poor 
little  boy ! "  in  a  mournful  tone,  and  if  the 
father  continued,  tears  would  fill  the  child's  eyes ; 
but  tears  gave  place  to  laughter  when  the  tone 
was  changed  and  the  father  said,  "  Happy  little 
boy  !  happiest  little  boy  in  Detroit !  "  The  same 


40  THE    STUDY    OF    CIIILDllKN. 

child  is  perceptibly  affected  by  certain  airs  upon 
the  piano-forte. 

Observations  carefully  written  out,  with  age, 
sex,  and  nationality  of  child,  would  have  a  psy- 
chological value.  The  age  at  which  a  child 
becomes  able  to  keep  time  with  hands,  feet,  or 
head,  with  the  history  of  its  failures,  would  be 
of  more  than  family  interest,  and  it  is  only  by 
many  such  transcribed  observations  that  we  can 
arrive  at  any  knowledge  which  has  scientific 
value. 


IV. 

FINGER    SONGS   RELATED    TO    FAMILY   LIFE    AND 
THE   IMAGINATIVE   FACULTY. 

The  understanding  is  not  a  vessel  that  needs  filling ;   it  is  a 
fuel  that  needs  kindling.  —  PLUTARCH. 

HERE  SCHULTE  observed  a  child  that  looked  ' 
attentively  at  its  own  hands  in  the  sixteenth 
week  of  its  life.  I  remember  a  child  that  used 
its  thumb  and  forefinger  with  amusing  deftness 
at  nine  months  of  age.  How  long  he  had  done 
this  when  I  observed  him  his  mother  could  not 
tell.  It  seems  strange  that  this  universally 
interesting  period  in  the  child's  development 
has  not  been  observed  with  accuracy,  or  re- 
corded, so  that  we  may  find  the  average  age  of 
the  normal  child's  first  notice  of  his  fingers  and 
toes.  Some  mothers  think  children  observe  their 
hands  at  the  age  of  six  weeks,  and  I  have  seen 
a  child  of  six  years  who  had  not  yet  reached 
that  stage  of  mental  development. 

41 


42  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

The  chick  just  from  its  shell  can  pick  up  its 
food  with  unerring  strokes  of  its  tiny  beak;  the 
lamb  has  the  use  of  its  legs  the  first  day  of  its 
life,  the  young  animal  having  an  inheritance  of 
muscular  power  quite  in  excess  of  that  of  a 
child.  But  the  glorious  birthright  of  man  is 
self-developing  power. 

A  little  observation  teaches  us  the  individu- 
ality of  the  hand.  People  who  carefully  train 
the  face  to  immobility,  and  pride  themselves 
upon  allowing  the  features  to  tell  no  tales  of 
passing  feeling,  often  betray  many  emotions 
through  unconscious  attitudes  and  gestures  of 
the  hands.  Dr.  Warner  gives  an  entire  chapter 
in  his  book,  "  The  Children :  How  to  Study 
Them,"  to  the  importance  of  these  unconscious 
habits  of  hand  position  and  motion.  Much  may 
be  known  of  physical  conditions  from  the  man- 
ner of  using  the  hands,  and  physical  conditions 
are  often,  if  not  always,  closely  interwoven  with 
mental  and  even  spiritual  life. 

Dr.  E.  H.  Clarke,  in  "  BuilHing  of  a  Brain," 
demonstrates  that  brain  power  depends  largely 
upon  activity  of  the  hands,  and  ambidexterity 


FINGEK    SONGS.  43 

is  now  cultivated  with  direct  reference  to  its 
value  in  this  direction.  One  of  the  strongest 
arguments  in  favor  of  manual  training  is  the 
benefit  to  the  brain  in  such  practice. 

Le  Conte,  in  "  Evolution  and  Its  Relation  to 
Religious  Thought,"  speaks  of  the  recent  start- 
ling advances  made  in  physiology,  and  speculates 
concerning  future  developments  in  this  direction, 
saying  that  we  may  find  a  right-handed  rotation 
of  atoms  associated  with  love,  and  a  left-handed 
rotation  associated  with  hate,  or  a  gentle,  side- 
ways oscillation  associated  with  consciousness, 
and  a  vertical  pounding  associated  with  will. 
The  hands  of  the  Venus  de  Medici,  Diana,  and 
the  Dying  Gladiator  furnish  examples  of  various 
attributes  wrought  in  marble.  In  literature  we 
have  perhaps  nothing  more  characteristic  than 
Silas  Lapham's  hairy  paw,  and  its  resemblance, 
when  gloved,  to  a  yellow-cased,  sugar-cured 
ham.  Delsarte  emphasizes  the  hand  as  a  means 
of  expression.  Clara  Morris,  in  "  Miss  Multon," 
makes  one  scene  almost  tragic  by  the  interlacing 
of  her  fingers  as  she  stands  with  her  back  to 
the  audience,  uttering  no  word,  but,  with  hands 


44  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

clenched  behind  her,  and  face  probably  smiling 
upon  her  tormentor,  she  gives  marvellous  expres- 
sion to  the  agony  of  her  soul.  One  can  never 
forget  Booth's  finger  interpretation  of  Hamlet's 
suppressed  passion  in  the  scene  with  Guilden- 
stern,  while  his  more  eloquent  lips  declare : 
"  Call  me  what  instrument  you  will,  though 
you  can  fret  me,  you  cannot  play  upon  me." 

Salvini's  hands  made  his  Italian  Othello 
almost  as  easily  understood  as  if  it  had  been 
rendered  in  our  native  tongue. 

We  must  remember  that  the  child's  hand  is^ 
an  instrument  of  which  he  has  to  learn  the  use 
by  a  very  complicated  and  slow  process.  We 
may  help  him  to  the  highest  use  of  it,  or  leave 
him  to  blunder  even  in  mechanical  skill  with  it. 
When  he  first  becomes  conscious  of  possession 
of  hands,  we  may  wisely  introduce  some  of 
Froebel's  finger  games,  which  strengthen  the 
muscles  and  aid  in  deftness  of  hand,  while  the 
mind  is  directed  to  the  family  relations  as  repre- 
sented by  the  fingers.  Taking  the  little  thumb 
and  each  finger  successively,  we  may  sing :  — 


FINGER    SONGS.  45 

"This  is  the  grand-papa, 
This  is  the  grand-mamma, 
This  is  the  father  dear, 
This  is  the  mother  dear, 
This  is  the  little  child - 
See  all  the  family  here." 

This  game  helps  the  child  in  differentiating 
his  fingers,  brings  him  back  to  the  unity  of  all 
—  many  fingers  and  one  hand  —  as  there  are 
many  individuals  and  one  family  in  his  little 
world.  The  dawning  consciousness  of  the  child 
so  turned  to  the  family  relations  is  surely  better 
than  the  old  nursery  method  of  playing  "  This 
little  pig  went  to  market."  The  superiority, 
even  from  the  physical  side  of  the  songs,  is  imme- 
diately seen,  the  fingers  being  destined  to  more 
important  work  than  the  toes,  therefore  needing 
more  attention  to  the  development  of  flexibility > 
The  particularly  meretricious  nursery  song  — 
"  This  little  pig  said,  I'm  going  to  grandpa's 
barn"  —  should  not  pass  unnoticed.  In  this  we 
have  boastfulness,  curiosity,  proposed  theft,  tale- 
bearing, and  defeated  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
smallest  pig,  who  cries  with  grief  because  of  his 


46  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

lack  of  strength.  Do  not  imagine  these  things 
never  stir  the  deep  spiritual  fountains  of  child 
nature  —  they  certainly  do. 

The  early  power  of  a  mother's  example  can 
hardly  be  overrated  ;  on  her  depends  much  of 
the  child's  future  estimate  of  the  sacredness  of 
the  family  relations.  If  every  man  could  truth- 
fully giye  such  an  account  of  home  harmony  as 
Ruskin  pictures  in  his  little  autobiographical 
sketch,  we  should  soon  have  the  millennium. 
We  are  ready  to  admit  that  daily  life  sinks 
deeper  than  maxims ;  but  we  are  apt  to  forget 
it,  especially  when  the  little  children  are  our 
only  observers.  We  agree  with  Carlyle  that 
what  we  are  is  more  than  what  we  say;  and 
then  we  live  according  to  our  inclinations,  and 
hope  to  see  the  children  do  better  than  we  do 
because  we  advise  them  well.  Truly,  there  is 
need,  in  many  quarters,  of  less  good  talk  and 
more  right  action. 

If  teachers  need  harmony  in  all  their  rela- 
tions with  associates  and  subordinates  in  order 
to  make  their  work  effectual,  how  much  more 
the  mother  needs  to  live  in  an  atmosphere  of 


FINGEK    SONGS.  47 

charity  in  every  branch  of  the  home  life !  Bet- 
ter that  she  should  suffer  an  indignity,  a  cruel 
wound  to  her  self-respect,  the  word  that  cuts 
like  a  sword,  or  exasperates  like  a  pin-prick  — 
better  to  suffer  all  these  in  dignified  self-repres- 
sion than  that  a  little  child  should  catch  a  note 
of  discord  in  the  home  life.  A  mother  must  be 
to  her  mother  what  she  would  have  her  child  be 
to  her. 

A  poor  woman  went  one  day  to  the  kinder- 
garten, where  she  heard  her  little  girl  singing, 
"  This  is  the  mother  good  and  dear,"  with  lov- 
ing glances  at  the  tiny  thumb,  which  became  to 
her,  for  the  moment,  the  ideal  mother ;  and  the 
woman,  overcome  with  self-reproaches,  left  the 
room  in  tears.  The  teacher,  following  her  to 
offer  sympathy  in  any  case  of  home  trouble,  was 
surprised  at  the  hurried  and  sobbing  confession : 
"  I  am  not  a  good  mother ;  oh,  I  am  not  a  good 
mother,  and  my  little  girl  knows  I  am  not ! 
What  shall  I  do?"  It  is  hardly  necessary  to 
tell  that  the  self-accused  mother  became  the  self- 
reforming  woman,  and  another  family  is  strug- 
gling to  make  the  home  what  it  should  be. 


48  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

Introducing  the  child  to  the  outer  world  by 
means  of  finger  plays  is  also  wise.  Holding  the 
left  hand  up  with  the  closed  right  hand  covered 
by  it,  one  may  sing,  as  the  fingers  of  the  left 
hand  spring  erect :  — 

"My  pigeon  house  I  open  wide, 

And  set  all  the  happy  pigeons  free. 
They  fly  o'er  the  fields  on  every  side, 

And  light  on  the  tallest  tree. 
But  when  they  return  from  their  merry  flight, 
We'll  shut  the  door  and  say  good-night. 

Coo-roo,  coo-roo,  coo-roo,  coo-roo, 

Coo-roo,  coo-roo,  coo-roo,  coo-roo." 

The  fingers  of  the  right  hand  nutter  about,  and 
lightly  rest  on  the  head,  as  on  a  tree,  returning 
to  the  pigeon  house  as  indicated  by  the  words. 
Another  valuable  finger  song  is  this  :  — 

"See  the  fishes  in  the  brook, 
Sinking,  rising  —  look,  look,  look! 
Now  they  are  straight  and  now  they  bend, 
Their  merry  playing  has  no  end. 
See  how  within  the  shallow  stream 
The  merry  little  fishes  gleam. 
See  how  they  dart  along  the  ground, 
Chasing  each  other  around  and  round, 
Chasing  each  other  around  and  round." 


FINGER    SONGS.  49 

In  this  the  words  themselves  describe  the 
motions.  A  very  effective  story  can  be  made 
from  the  material  of  these  songs.  The  birds 
invite  the  fishes  to  coine  up  to  their  nests,  but 
the  fishes  decline  because  they  cannot  fly ;  but 
as  the  birds  can  walk,  they  are  asked  to  come 
down  to  the  bottom  of  the  brook,  but  they  can- 
not do  that,  as  they  are  made  to  live  in  the  air ; 
and  after  a  happy  hour  of  chatter  and  grateful 
comparison  of  mutual  advantages,  birds  and 
fishes  agree  that  air  is  good  for  wings,  fins  for 
water,  and  the  little  boy  who  hears  the  dialogue 
rejoices  that  he  lives  in  home  love,  and  needs 
neither  wings  nor  fins. 

Through  these  and  like  songs  I  helped  a 
feeble-minded  child  of  six  years  to  her  first 
observation  of  her  fingers,  which  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  an  attempt  to  use  the  thumb  and  fore- 
finger in  conjunction. 

With  the  most  scrupulous  care  on  the  part  of 
the  most  conscientious  mother,  it  often  happens 
that  very  young  children  acquire  dangerous 
habits  of  the  hands.  Vicious  tendencies,  quite 
improbable  if  not  impossible,  are  often  ascribed 


50  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

to  the  child,  and  remedies  almost  as  hurtful  as 
the  disorder  are  sometimes  used.  These  games 
are  found  admirable  in  the  correction  of  such 
habits;  the  child  that  sucks  its  thumb  refusing 
herself  that  luxury  when  the  thumb  is  put  to 
sleep  with  the  song  given  above. 

The  imagination  of  the  child  is  healthfully 
stimulated  by  these  games,  and  through  his 
imagination  his  will  may  be  strengthened  in 
right  directions  —  for  we  are  learning  that  self- 
will  and  self-direction  are  good  for  the  child. 


V. 

SONGS  AND  GAMES  FOR  THE  CULTIVATION   OF 

THE   SENSES:    THEIR   RIGHT   USE   AND 

THEIR  DANGERS. 

May  you  give  bread  to  men ;  but  my  aim  shall  be  to  give 
men  to  themselves. — FROEBEL. 

CERTAIN  fruits  and  grains  deteriorate  if  left  to 
nature,  and  many  a  weed  -becomes  a  lovely  plant 
by  the  slow  processes  of  cultivation.  Preyer 
says  that  before  a  sure  sign  of  will,  of  memory, 
judgment,  inference  in  the  proper  sense,  is  found, 
the  feelings  have  expressed  themselves  in  direct 
connection  with  the  first  excitations  of  the 
nerves  of  sense.  Carpenter's  "  Mental  Physi- 
ology" treats  the  senses  with  a  dignity  which 
deepens  the  impressiveness  of  the  Biblical  asser- 
tion that  our  bodies  are  the  temples  of  the  liv- 
ing God. 

In  past  times,  and  in  isolated  cases  of  our 
own  day,  man,  feeling  his  way  Godward,  found, 

51 


52  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

as  he  thought,  a  hindrance  in  the  senses ;  to 
crucify  the  flesh  was  therefore  thought  not  only 
an  act  of  devotion,  but  a  means  of  spiritual 
growth,  and  the  words  of  Agassiz,  "A  physical 
fact  is  as  sacred  as  a  moral  principle,"  could 
hardly  have  been  written  by  a  man  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  A  late  writer  on  the  problem 
of  evil  says :  "  As  the  senses  are  the  necessary 
feeders  of  the  intellect,  so  the  appetites  are  the 
necessary  nourishers  of  our  highest  moral  sen- 
timents. And  yet  the  struggle  for  mastery 
of  the  higher  spiritual  with  the  lower  animal  is 
often  so  severe  that  the  latter  seems  to  many 
an  essential  evil  to  be  extirpated,  instead  of  a 
useful  servant  to  be  controlled. 

All  that  we  call  evil,  both  in  the  material 
and  the  spiritual  world,  is  good  so  long  as  we 
hold  it  in  subjection  as  servants  to  the  spirit, 
and  only  becomes  evil  when  we  succumb.  All 
evil  consists  in  the  dominance  of  the  lower  over 
the  higher ;  all  good  in  the  rational  use  of  the 
lower  by  the  higher.  It  is  only  by  action  and 
reaction  of  all  parts  of  our  complex  nature  that 
true  virtue  is  attained."  With  this  view  of  the 


SONGS    AND    GAMES.  53 

senses  and  appetites  we  may  well  advocate  culti- 
vation, which  involves  the  use  of  the  harrow  and 
pruning-knife  as  well  as  good  seed. 

The  first  evil  that  threatens  the  baby  is  glut- 
tony. Nature  left  to  herself  is  an  unsafe  guide ; 
first  sensations  of  discomfort  are  allayed  by  feed- 
ing, and  the  child  would  apply  this  sovereign 
remedy  for  all  ailments  and  discomforts.  Some- 
times the  mother  uses  as  little  judgment  as  the 
child,  and  relief  for  an  over-full  stomach  is 
sought  in  more  feeding,  with  a  ridiculous  appli- 
cation of  "  similia  similibus  curantur"  Children 
of  but  three  years  of  age  are  sometimes  little 
gormands,  whose  best  correction  might  be  found 
in  the  careful  use  of  Froebel's  Taste  Songs. 
Through  these  the  child  may  be  led  to  classifi- 
cation of  edibles  into  nuts,  fruits,  vegetables,  etc. 
Talk  about  the  processes  of  growth  or  manu- 
facture will  prevent  the  game  from  deteriorating 
into  mere  eating. 

A  hasty  glance  even,  into  an  encyclopedia 
will  furnish  the  basis  for  fascinating  stories  of  a 
lump  of  sugar,  history  of  an  orange,  adventures 
of  a  cocoanut ;  and  the  child  may  soon  be  led  to 


54  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

telling  the  story  of  the  material  tasted,  and  will 
naturally  forget  the  grosser  side  of  eating  in 
such  investigation  of  the  processes  of  nature  and 
art  in  the  production  of  his  food. 

Smell,  that  more  delicate  sense  so  closely 
allied  to  taste,  may  also  be  utilized  in  classifi- 
cation—  and  the  educational  value  of  classifica- 
tion is  well  known. 

In  tasting,  we  destroy  the  form  of  that  upon 
which  we  act ;  but  we  enjoy  the  smell  of  the 
rose,  and  the  rose  is  not  destroyed,  though  it  is 
by  a  process  of  dissolution  that  the  flower  gives 
up  its  odor :  an  early  interest  in  botany  may  be 
awakened  by  this  game.  The  sense  of  smell  is 
claimed  by  some  to  be  more  closely  related  to 
the  spiritual  life  than  the  other  senses ;  we  are 
perhaps  too  forgetful  of  the  ministrations  to  a 
higher  life  which  this  refined  sense  affords.  By 
the  law  of  association  the  sweet-brier  that  per- 
fumed our  playroom  when  we  were  children,  or 
the  favorite  flower  of  some  departed  friend, 
becomes  a  power  in  our  lives.  The  locust  blos- 
som, the  wild  violet,  the  golden-rod,  by  their 
fragrance  may  recall  a  hallowed  hour  or  place. 


SONGS    AND    GAMES.  55 

Perhaps  not  one  reader  of  this  but  will  hav^  her 
own  tender  thoughts  in  this  connection,  thoughts 
which  lift  her  heavenward  not  only  in  feeling, 
but  control  many  an  action  of  her  life,  for  which 
she  is  debtor  to  the  subtle  sense  of  smell. 

The  child  with  covered  eyes  guesses  the  name 
of  a  flower  by  its  distinctive  odor,  and  led  by 
the  song  takes  care  of  the  flower  which  has 
ministered  to  his  pleasure,  instead  of  casting  it 
aside  to  wither  and  fade  when  his  enjoyment  of 
it  has  passed. 

That  the  sense  of  touch  may  also  tell  us  the 
names  of  objects  and  persons  may  be  taught  by 
blindfolding  the  child  while  his  hands  discover 
the  secret.  A  very  nice  sense  of  touch  may 
thus  be  acquired. 

For  the  cultivation  of  the  ear  a  charming 
game  is  provided.  A  child  stands  in  the  middle 
of  the  room  blindfolded,  while  others  march 
around  him,  singing.  At  the  tap  of  a  stick  a 
child  steps  behind  the  guesser,  singing  alone  a 
part  of  the  song,  and  the  blindfolded  one 
guesses  from  the  voice  wjia  it  is.  Children 
become  marvellously  quick  in  recognizing  tones 


56  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

in  t^is  way,  and  any  kindergarten  where  this 
game  has  been  played  a  few  months  will  put  to 
the  blush  the  same  number  of  older  people  who 
wish  to  try  it,  unless  they  have  had  similar 
training.  There  are  some  popular  games  of  this 
nature  played  by  young  girls  that  are  vulgar  in 
the  extreme.  I  saw  not  long  since,  at  a  chil- 
dren's party,  a  game  involving  the  same  princi- 
ple, but  worked  out  in  a  coarse  manner.  There 
was  no  singing,  but  the  girl  designated  grunted 
in  a  swinish  manner,  her  name  being  guessed 
by  this  vocal  expression.  The  girls  very  readily 
accepted  the  suggestion  of  a  prettier  way  of 
playing  the  same  game — another  proof  of  the 
ease  with  which  the  games  as  well  as  the 
studies  of  children  may  be  directed  by  a  sym- 
pathetic older  person. 

For  the  very  little  ones,  who  find  the  above 
game  too  complicated,  the  simple  call  of 
"  cuckoo  !  cuckoo  !  cuckoo  !  "  may  be  substi- 
tuted, the  blindfolded  child  directing  its  steps 
toward  the  sound  ;  even  the  handkerchief  may 
be  omitted  for  the  toddler,  the  singer  secreting 
herself  behind  a  door  or  armchair. 


SONGS    AND    GAMES.  57 

There  is  a  theory,  not  yet  fully  tested,  that  a 
disorder  of  the  ear  exists,  corresponding  to 
color-blindness,  or  possibly  to  near-sightedness. 
My  own  investigations  in  the  public  schools  of 
Boston  under  the  direction  of  an  eminent  aurist, 
Dr.  Clarence  Blake,  certainly  prove  the  existence 
of  a  disorder  of  the  ear,  but  its  exact  nature  is 
not  yet  known. 

If  the  disorder  is  curable,  such  training  of  the 
ear  as  these  games  involve  must  be  of  great 
value. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  generally  known  that  a  child  v 
learns  to  see  by  a  slow  process,  as  he  learns  to 
walk.     Some  parents  and  teachers  attribute  the 
incorrect  estimates  of  things  seen  to  lack  of  nudg- 

o  «j        o 

ment,  but  it  is  no  doubt  true  that  for  a  long 
period  the  child  sees  but  dimly,  or  only  in  out- 
lines ;  this  would  partially  explain  his  keen 
enjoyment  of  crude  drawings.  A  child  once 
drew  a  mouse  for  me  with  one  stroke  of  his  pen- 
cil and  a  dot ;  the  long  curved  line  represented 
the  tail,  and  the  dot  the  eye  of  the  mouse,  and 
he  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  his  representation 
of  what  he  had  seen. 


58  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDKEN. 

Recognition  of  various  qualities  and  objects 
by  sight  is  a  game  which  may  be  made  of  great 
physical  and  intellectual  value.  A  small  num- 
ber of  objects,  the  number  to  be  increased  as  the 
child's  ability  improves,  may  be  placed  in  a  bas- 
ket covered  with  a  napkin ;  give  the  child  a 
peep  under  the  napkin,  and  then  ask  him  what 
he  has  seen.  Memory  and  language  must  now 
be  brought  into  requisition,  and  in  this  simple 
play,  sensation,  perception,  memory,  language, 
and  will  are  involved.  The  complexity  of  the 
game  may  be  increased  as  the  child  is  able,  by 
adding  to  the  objects  their  number,  color,  form, 
and  material. 

The  same  purpose  may  be  accomplished  by 
varying  the  game,  holding  the  objects  in  the 
hand,  or  making  pictures  on  a  board,  removing 
a  screen  for  a  moment's  observation.  Another 
excellent  aid  to  sight  recognition  is  found  in 
timing  a  child  at  a  window,  giving  him  five 
minutes  for  seeing  as  many  things  as  he  can  in 
the  time  allotted  ;  he  may  name  them  as  he  sees 
them  at  first,  but  he  will  soon  enjoy  the  memory 
game  connected  with  it. 


SONGS    AND    GAMES.  59 

A  child  whose  senses  are  thus  cultivated  is  in 
small  danger  of  thinking  too  much  about  him- 
self, for  he  is  drawn  to  observation  of  the  world 
outside  and  to  an  appreciative  interest  in  the 
processes  of  nature  and  the  wonders  of  man's 
mechanical  skill,  and  if  he  does  not  look  rever- 
ently from  created  things  toward  the  Creator,  it 
will  be  because  he  is  turned  aside  by  those  who 
are  guiding  him. 

Observation  and  transcription  of  intellectual 
development  through  cultivation  of  the  senses 
is  much  needed. 


VI. 

NATURAL  PHENOMENA   DELATED   TO   THE 
SPIRITUAL  LIFE   OF   THE   CHILD. 

Children  marvel  at  the  phenomena  of  nature,  while  grown 
people  often  think  themselves  too  wise  to  wonder.  —  ALEX. 
BRAUN. 

SOME  years  since,  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
G.  Stanley  Hall,  I  made  some  studies  of  the  no- 
tions of  little  children  concerning  natural  phe- 
nomena. Their  ideas  were  a  revelation  to  me. 
They  thought  the  sky  was  made  of  bricks,  that 
it  was  wall-paper,  that  it  was  the  floor  of  heaven. 
I  found  an  attenuated,  half-dressed  little  boy  of, 
five  years  at  the  North  End  rn  Boston,  whose 
face  glowed  with  eager  anticipation  when  he 
told  me  that  he  expected  to  help  God  make 
thunder  when  he  should  get  to  heaven  ;  and  on  f 
being  questioned  how  it  was  done,  he  answered 
that  they  kicked  balls  around  there.  Some  chil- 
dren thought  the  thunder  was  God  hammering 

60 


NATUKAL    PHENOMENA.  61 

out  other  worlds.  Note  the  likeness  between 
this  conception  of  noisy  creative  activity  and 
the  ancient  ideas  of  Vulcan  and  the  Norse  beliefs 
concerning  Loki  and  his  occupations.  Their 
thoughts  about  lightning  showed  the  same  vari- 
ations, according  to  the  child's  individuality  and 
environment :  to  one  it  was  "  God  pointing  his 
finger  at  me  " ;  to  another  it  was  God  opening 
the  door  of  heaven  to  look  out.  To  some  chil- 
dren the  clouds  were  lace  curtains  between  us 
and  heaven.  Is  there  anything  more  graceful 
than  that  in  the  Greek  mythology  ?  A  child  of 
four  years,  being  asked  one  rainy  day  where  the 
rain  came  from,  answered,  as  if  it  had  been  long 
settled  in  his  mind,  that  the  ice-carts  up  there 
were  leaking. 

Country  children  have  superior  advantages  in 
their  nearness  to  earth  and  sky,  but  no  lovelier 
conception  could  be  found  in  a  child's  mind  than 
that  of  a  boy  at  the  North  End,  who  had  never 
seen  the  Common  or  Garden,  and  lived  at  the 
top  of  one  of  the  crowded  tenements  in  that 
dreary  region.  He  said,  with  radiant  though 
dirty  face,  that  there  were  many  diamonds  in 


62  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

heaven,  and  he  should  have  some  to  play  with 
when  he  got  there ;  on  being  questioned  as  to 
where  he  had  ever  seen  any  diamonds,  he  an- 
swered, "  In  a  window  on  Tremont  Row,  and  on 
a  patch  of  grass  in  Miss  Maloney's  yard,  some- 
times real  early  in  the  morning  !  "  Rain  nearly 
always  represented  to  these  children  some  activ- 
ity of  God.  He  was  sprinkling  his  garden, 
upsetting  buckets,  turning  the  faucets,  etc. 

The  sun,  moon,  and  stars  were  usually  personi- 
fied ;  some  thought  them  bright  beings  —  men, 
women,  or  angels  that  walk,  fly,  or  run  in  heaven 
or  in  the  sky,  God  holding  them  by  the  hand  or 
they  would  fall.  A  child  whose  feet  were  stained 
with  blue  stockings  told  his  mother  some  of  the 
sky  must  have  fallen  down  and  he  had  stepped 
in  it.  Like  the  ancient  Greek,  the  child  projects 
his  life  and  his  love  into  the  starry  firmament. 
It  is  a  subject  for  grave  thought  that  to  the  little 
child  the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  a  unit,  and 
that  unit  includes  the  law  of  love  —  love  typified 
by  the  family  relations.  If  we  could  remember 
that  "  the  spirit  of  God  moves  upon  the  child's 
spirit  as  the  ocean  sways  the  seaweed,"  then  we 


NATURAL    PPIENOMENA.  63 

should  begin  the  lesson  indicated  by  the  Master 
when  he  placed  the  child  in  the  midst  of  the 
bickering  crowd  and  bade  the  disciples  to  con- 
sider it. 

Let  us  examine  the  symbolism  in  which  the 
child  lives.  We  express  ourselves  through  sym- 
bols, our  thoughts  often  refusing  the  small- 
clothes of  words  that  do  not  have  sufficiently 
expansive  meanings.  We  do  not  reach  an  intel- 
lectual plane  where  we  lay  aside  symbols;  the 
most  exact  scientists  are  forced  to  use  them,  the 
language  of  chemistry  even  being  a  language  of 
poetry  when  we  put  it  word  by  word  to  a  critical 
test.  Tyndall,  in  his  "  Scientific  Uses  of  the 
Imagination,"  warmly  defends  the  groundwork 
of  symbolism.  If  we  of  maturer  years  are  so 
dependent  upon  symbols,  both  in  intellectual  and 
spiritual  growth,  shall  we  not  look  for  a  like, 
and  even  greater,  need  in  the  undeveloped  life 
of  the  child  ? 

The  child  sees  men  and  women,  fathers,  moth- 
ers, and  children,  in  the  stars ;  they  are  there  by 
comparison.  Out  of  comparison  the  child  ar- 
rives at  abstraction,  and  from  abstraction  the 


64  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

child  grasps  the  Infinite.  He  does  not  study  his 
process  of  growth  —  all  healthy  growth  is  per- 
haps unconscious;  but  the  family  lives  in  and 
by  love ;  love  is  the  element  in  which  the  stars 
exist.  Mother-love  leads  to  God-love,  and  the 
child  climbs  from  his  mother's  arms  beyond  the 
stars,  finally  reaching  the  abstract  knowledge 
that  only  that  which  is  a  reflection  of  God  will 
abide  eternally,  and  that  which  reflects  spirit  is 
spirit.  There  is  a  significance  in  the  child's  de- 
sire to  reach  the  stars  which  we  would  better 
gravely  consider  than  to  laugh  at,  either  thought- 
lessly or  contemptuously.  The  soul  that  holds 
its  aspirations  in  spite  of  all  temporary  and  tem- 
poral hindrances  will  as  assuredly  find  its  way 
back  to  God  as  the  stars  move  in  their  appointed 
ways. 

The  material  world  we  believe  to  be  a  mani- 
festation of  the  Creative  Thought,  and  as  we 
study  the  material  world  we  are  impressed  with 
the  many-sided  glimpses  of  that  Creative 
Power  which  it  affords  us.  We  climb  toward 
God's  thought  on  stepping-stones  of  material 
things,  up,  up  among  the  forces  which  seem 


NATURAL    PHENOMENA.  65 

nearer  and  nearer  the  spiritual,  until  we  find 
ourselves  in  the  light  which  reveals  Him  to  our 
spirits,  and  nothing  in  His  created  world  is  ever 
again  common  or  unclean. 

The  delight  of  the  baby  in  glancing  sunbeams 
has  a  cause  as  sure  and  universal  as  the  delight. 
The  child  that  will  shudder  and  cry  at  sight  of 
shadows  on  the  wall  will  clap  its  hands  and 
laugh  when  the  prism  sends  its  rainbow  colors 
dancing  through  the  room.  Light  has  ever  been 
a  symbol  of  good.  In  the  Norse  mythology  the 
gods  dwelt  in  the  light  of  Asgard,  while  the 
dwarfs  worked  in  dark  caves.  In  their  best 
moments  men  have  ever  turned  to  the  contem- 
plation or  worship  of  light.  It  has  been  the 
god  of  the  child  of  the  race.  The  Hebrews 
kept  the  sacred  shekinah  burning  upon  their 
altars  day  and  night.  It  might  be  thought  that 
science  would  rob  the  light  of  its  spiritual  sig- 
nificance ;  but  so  much  stronger  are  spiritual 
meanings  than  we  can  comprehend,  that  an 
essay  of  Tyndall's  upon  sun  rays  lifts  one 
from  the  contemplation  of  natural  forces  to 
spontaneous  worship  of  the  Source  of  truth 
and  life. 


66  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

Scientists,  like  the  prophets  of  old,  speak  with 
deeper  meaning  than  they  know.  Thoughts 
concerning  the  light,  from  Milton,  from  Goethe, 
from  Dante,  flutter  about  us  like  birds,  and  we 
feel  that  man  would  have  found  God  by  the 
single  ladder  of  light  had  he  been  left  with  no 
other  revelation  ;  but  revelation  addressed  to 
the  feeling  which  underlies  knowledge  gives  us 
the  <  sense  of  unity  without  and  within,  above 
and  below,  as  we  listen  to  its  voice,  "  I  am  the 
light,"  «  Walk  in  the  light." 

Froebel's  song  of  the  Light-bird,  and  of  the 
moon  and  stars,  will  help  the  mother  to  feel  the 
divine  fire  in  her  own  heart  which  seeks  all  its 
dark  places  with  its  illuminating  power,  burn- 
ing out  unworthy  aims,  causing  her  to  avoid 
secrecy,  and  to  cultivate  truthfulness  not  only 
of  speech  but  of  action  in  all  her  relations 
with  her  child,  whereby  they  wrill  tread  upon 
the  adder  of  evil,  and  together  hasten  the 
coming  of  the  day  which  shall  need  no  light 
of  sun,  moon,  or  stars,  for  God  will  give  the 
light. 


VII. 
THE   DULL   CHILD   THE   WISE   MAN'S   PROBLEM. 

I  know  so  much  I  hardly  know  myself.  —  FIVE-YEAR-OLD 
EOT. 

WE  may  watch  the  dawn  of  thought  in  a 
young  child  and  learn  lessons  which  are  hidden 
from  us  in  the  larger  volume  of  the  mature 
mind.  In  its  unconsciousness  of  the  possession 
of  mental  faculties  it  presents  to  the  philosopher 
unequalled  advantages  for  study.  A  retentive 
memory  does  not  make  a  bright  child ;  I  have 
seen  a  case  of  unimprovable  feebleness  of  mind 
where  dates  were  so  retained  in  the  memory 
that  the  child  was  a  prodigy  studied  by  univer- 
sity men.  Quickness  in  computation  is  not  an 
indication  of  brightness  of  intellect;  abnormal 
ability  in  this  direction  may  exist  in  a  mind 
quite  incapable  of  effort  in  other  directions. 
Speeches  that  are  usually  accepted  as  indications 
of  acuteness  in  children  will  not  often  bear  the 

67 


68  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

test  of  candid  analysis.  A  boy  of  five  years 
begged  for  a  sister,  and  was  told  to  wait  until 
babies  were  cheaper  ;  he  had  a  ticket  for  an  en- 
tertainment on  which  he  found  the  usual  "  chil- 
dren for  half  price,"  and  ran  to  his  mother  to 
demand  the  promised  sister,  as  they  were  now 
selling  children  at  half  price.  We  laugh  at  this 
as  if  the  child  were  consciously  witty,  but  the 
statement  was,  to  his  mind,  as  free  from  humor, 
and  his  acceptance  of  it  as  serious,  as  in  scores 
of  cases  in  which  he  would  have  been  rebuked 
for  lack  of  common  sense.  We  know  that 
children  do  not  see  the  occasion  for  laughter 
in  half  the  things  we  account  funny.  We  are 
sometimes  as  cruel  in  our  merriment  as  at  others 
we  are  unjust  in  our  blame. 

A  degree  of  absent-mindedness  sometimes 
accompanies  a  depth  of  thought  which  is  quite 
precocious ;  we  must  religiously  guard  our  ex- 
pressions of  blame  in  the  presence  of  these 
children. 

On  the  street  my  attention  was  once  drawn 
to  a  knot  of  boys  ten  or  twelve  years  old,  one  of 
whom  proved  to  possess  remarkable  mechanical 


THE    DULL    CHILD.  69 

skill.  Having  a  paper  that  admitted  me  to  any 
school  in  the  city  for  purposes  of  investigation, 
I  went  to  his  department  to  study  the  case. 
His  teacher  asked  how  I  happened  to  select  him 
from  among  others  in  her  room,  as  she  was  not 
aware  that  he  had  any  especial  ability.  The 
particulars  of  his  development  were  referred  to 
Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall,  who  said  some  memorable 
words  that  should  be  written  upon  the  walls  of 
every  schoolroom :  "  Tread  softly  here ;  you 
may  be  in  the  presence  of  genius."  The  point 
to  be  noted  is,  that  a  boy  of  unmistakable  indi- 
viduality, and  of  such  peculiarity  as  to  draw 
from  a  philosopher  a  remark  like  that,  was,  in 
the  eyes  of  his  teacher,  quite  an  average  boy. 
The  teacher  might  have  looked  daily  into  the 
mysteries  of  this  mind  but  for  the  stultifying 
pressure  of  grade  work  too  commonly  forced 
upon  teachers.  In  our  studies  in  primary 
schools  we  found  that  the  children  accounted 
bright  were  those  who  were  quick  in  number 
lessons.  The  children  accounted  dull  were  those 
who  were  shy  and  slow  of  speech ;  but  these 
were  they  who  held  those  beautiful  notions  of 


70  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

the  heavenly  bodies,  and  those  airy  imaginings 
about  the  clouds ;  children  who  were  uncom- 
municative without  being  sullen,  who  thought 
their  own  thoughts,  losing  their  way  in  "  tables  " 
because  they  were  wandering  in  a  region  where 
it  made  no  difference  whether  two  and  two  make 
four  or  five. 

A  child  of  abnormal  mentality  was  placed  in 
my  kindergarten  at  the  age  of  three  ;  she  would 
not  look  at  other  children,  did  not  notice  music 
nor  take  the  brightest  toy  in  her  hands,  and 
showed  no  pleasure  even  in  sweet  tastes.  She 
found  amusement  in  tearing  her  aprons  from 
hem  to  neck,  but  would  take  no  substitute  of 
old  calico,  and  showed  no  gleam  of  satisfaction 
when  she  found  a  thin  place  for  a  starting-point ; 
she  even  did  this  in  a  listless  fashion,  and  not 
as  a  regular  occupation.  After  some  months  of 
this  stupor  she  accepted  a  box  of  beads,  looked 
at  bright  balls  and  sometimes  at  the  children 
when  their  movements  were  uncommonly  rapid  ; 
at  the  end  of  a  year  she  would  walk  if  urged 
and  supported  by  both  hands.  In  the  second 
year  she  developed  some  skill  with  her  fingers 


THE    DULL    CHILD. 

and  much  interest  in  the  games,  but  she  was 
subject  to  violent  outbursts  of  temper,  the  causes 
of  which  could  seldom  be  discovered.  She  was 
spiteful  toward  children  and  teachers  alike,  and 
after  a  passionate  outbreak  was  not  sunny,  but 
unusually  quiet,  the  rousing  of  mental  activity 
seeming  to  culminate  in  a  burst  of  wrath,  during 
which  she  would  scratch  and  bite,  and  then  sub- 
side into  quiet  which  was  due  to  exhaustion 
rather  than  to  penitence.  This  stage  of  devel- 
opment lasted  six  months  or  more,  and  one  day 
the  teachers  looked  at  each  other  in  surprise, 
one  inquiring,  "  When  has  J.  been  in  one  of  her 
tempers  ?  "  The  day  could  not  be  recalled ;  the 
days  of  wrath  had  passed  away  and  a  new  era 
dawned.  J.  became  the  most  trusted  care-taker 
of  the  little  ones  ;  she  never  tired  of  helping  the 
smallest  children  with  wraps  and  rubbers,  and 
would  walk  half  a  mile  to  restore  a  veil  to  some 
careless  child  ;  her  remarks  were  quaint  and  full 
of  humor,  and  she  became  to  us  a  most  com- 
panionable child.  She  brought  her  doll  daily, 
taking  beautiful  care  of  it  and  its  clothes.  She 
was  retained  three  years  in  the  kindergarten, 


72  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

and  in  the  last  year  she  was  untiring  in  her 
efforts  to  master  both  ideas  and  things.  She  is 
now  in  grammar  school,  among  the  first  in  her 
class,  slow  to  grasp  but  sure  to  hold  ideas,  and 
has  shown  marked  musical  ability ;  her  hands, 
so  slow  in  skill,  are  remarkably  beautiful,  com- 
bining strength  with  flexibility.  She  has  ex- 
celled pupils  of  her  age  in  piano-forte  lessons, 
her  teacher  telling  me  she  is  an  uncommonly  prom- 
ising pupil.  I  was  often  assured  that  she  was 
an  idiot  when  she  first  came  to  the  kinder- 
garten. 

But  there  are  dull  children  ?  Doubtless  ;  but 
the  most  hopelessly  dull  are  the  scatter-brained 
ones  who  catch  and  toss  words,  and  facts  even, 
from  tongue-tips  without  turning  them  over  in 
their  own  minds. 

But  it  is  the  feeble-minded  children  that  I 
wish  to  commend  to  your  thoughtful  consider- 
ation ;  and  let  us  acknowledge  our  indebtedness 
to  these  unfortunate  children,  who  furnish  us 
with  laws  of  mental  development  in  large  type. 
The  normal  processes  of  mind  are  so  rapid  that 
study  of  them  is  somewhat  impeded,  but  the  ab- 


THE    DULL    CHILD.  73 

normally  slow  mind  gives  us  invaluable  aid.  To 
study  the  mechanism  of  a  locomotive  one  must 
see  it  at  rest,  or  when  running  at  slackened 
speed.  Men  go  to  insane  asylums  to  learn  about 
aberrations  of  mind,  and  measure  the  healthy 
brain  by  the  peculiarities  of  the  diseased  one. 

If  the  feeble-minded  children  had  no  moral 
claim  upon  us,  it  would  be  to  our  advantage  to 
educate  them  in  connection  with  our  normal 
schools.  Massachusetts,  New  York,  and  Wis- 
consin educate  as  citizens  a  large  class  of  chil- 
dren that  Michigan  supports  as  paupers.  Many 
children  go  through  life  hopelessly  idiotic  be- 
cause there  is  a  small  tumor  of  the  inner  ear 
which  presses  upon  the  brain,  interfering  with 
its  action ;  children  have  been  restored  to  nor- 
mal mental  conditions  by  the  removal  of  such 
growths.  Others  of  peculiar  mental  constitu- 
tion find  in  schools  for  the  feeble-minded  such 
training  as  no  public  school  can  give,  and  are 
saved  from  degradation  and  pauperism  by  the 
State,  which  does  only  her  duty  in  caring  alike 
for  all  her  children  ;  for  the  State  should  afford 
schools  for  all  minors  or  for  none. 


74  THE    STUDY    OF    CHILDREN. 

But  this  series  of  papers  will  have  failed  of 
its  main  purpose  if  mothers  are  not  stimulated 
to  a  systematic  study  of  children.  A  mother 
may  observe  and  transcribe  the  dominant  feel- 
ings and  their  means  of  expression  in  the  young- 
est baby  ;  ten  minutes  of  such  observation  daily 
will  open  her  eyes  to  the  development  of  habit, 
and  she  will  find  herself  observing  the  awaken- 
ing of  thought  and  the  dawning  of  will  with  an 
understanding  sharpened*  by  these  studies.  An 
occasional  review  of  her  record  may  flash  light 
upon  something  otherwise  misunderstood  in  the 
character  of  her  child. 

Men  of  science  are  indefatigable  in  their  scru- 
tiny of  nature  ;  no  man  would  trust  his  memory 
alone  for  any  account  of  the  daily  changes  in  a 
chrysalis  as  observed  under  the  microscope. 
But  we  let  these  developing  minds,  with  all  the 
complexity  of  influences  about  and  within  them, 
pass  from  stage  to  stage  of  growth,  making  no 
note  upon  the  processes.  It  is  not  items  for  the 
funny  columns  of  newspapers  that  we  beg  you  to 
collect  —  it  is  history  we  need,  and  no  one  needs 
it  so  much  as  the  mother  herself.  The  record 


THE    DULL    CHILD.  75 

of  everything  done  by  a  child  in  one  day,  in  the 
order  of  doing,  would  be  a  revelation  to  the  in- 
experienced observer.  Richter  has  well  said 
that  a  diary  about  an  ordinary  child  would  be 
more  valuable  than  many  books  about  children 
by  an  ordinary  writer. 


CHILDREN'S    HABITS. 


Habit  is  the  enormous  fly-wheel  of  society,  its  most  precious 
conservative  agent.  —  PROFESSOR  JAMES. 

PARENTS  are  often  responsible  for  a  critical 
and  unkind  attitude  of  mind  on  the  part  of 
their  children  towards  associates.  They  culti- 
vate it  in  them  by  constant  attention  to  bad 
habits,  forgetting  that  the  gpod  habits  are  to 
the  bad  as  the  sands  of  the  sea  compared  with 
its  shells. 

For  convenience,  we  will  consider  children's 
habits,  as  physical,  mental,  and  moral. 

Prevention  is  better  than  cure,  in  habits  as 
well  as  in  sickness.  A  kindergartner  has 
mainly  to  consider  those  which  have  begun  in 
peculiarities  or  accidents,  and  with  wise  treat- 
ment prevent  their  becoming  fixed. 

Singularity    of    gesture,    or    freak   of    facial 

76 


CHILDREN  S    HABITS.  77 

expression,  should  be  promptly  treated  with- 
out attracting  the  attention  of  the  child  to  its 
difficulty,  and  in  a  playful  manner,  without 
speaking  of  the  object  in  view.  The  turning 
in  of  toes,  shrugging  of  shoulders,  hanging  of 
the  head,  even  sucking  of  the  thumb,  may  be 
corrected  before  the  muscles  are  so  contracted 
as  to  render  the  change  of  action  difficult.  If 
the  child  is  shy,  and  these  gestures  arise  from 
an  over-consciousness  of  hands  and  feet,  draw 
his  attention  to  external  objects  by  your  own 
interested  observation  of  them,  encouraging  him 
to  imitate  animals  and  their  motions.  The 
child  who  plays  he  is  a  restive  colt,  tossing  his 
head  and  prancing  in  his  harness,  gets  valuable 
aid  in  the  proper  carriage  of  his  own  body. 

Keep  in  mind,  however,  the  safeguard  of  a 
new  interest  to  prevent  repetition  of  the  mus- 
cular movement. 

When  a  bad  habit  is  formed,  even  one  which 
has  pre-natal  excuse  for  its  existence,  it  can  be 
corrected  by  gentle,  continued  watchfulness. 

A  little  girl  of  four  years  had  a  well-fixed 
habit  of  sucking  her  thumb,  which  was  cor- 


78  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

rected  by  occupying  the  little  hands  in  bead- 
stringing,  sticking  shoe-pegs,  etc.  When  the 
trial  of  bedtime  arrived,  the  thumb  was  called 
the  sleepy  baby,  and  was  playfully  rocked  in 
the  crib  of  nurse's  palm  until  the  little  mother 
slept,  the  hand  being  gently  confined  with  a 
handkerchief  during  sleep,  to  prevent  the  un- 
conscious action. 

A  child  of  three  years  entered  the  kinder- 
garten with  a  habit  of  crying.  The  mother 
was  visited,  and  questioned  about  causes,  but 
could  give  none.  The  child  had  cried  ever 
since  her  birth.  "  Did  you  cry  much  before  the 
child  was  born?"  "Cry!  I  cried  six  months, 
miss,  hardly  stopping  to  eat  or  sleep."  The 
poor,  uneducated,  overworked  mother  was  as- 
tonished to  learn  that  her  distress  of  mind  had 
probably  affected  her  child,  and  she  was  ready 
to  help  in  undoing  the  injury. 

Whenever  the  child  began  to  cry,  a  fresh 
flower,  a  box  of  beads  to  string,  a  proposed 
walk,  or  some  such  pleasant  surprise,  involving  a 
change  of  interest  and  occupation,  was  instantly 
proposed,  nothing  being  said  about  the  tears. 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  79 

A  few  weeks  of  this  treatment  produced  a 
marked  change,  and  at  five  years  of  age  the 
child  entered  public  school  with  no  more  ten- 
dency to  "cry  for  nothing  "  than  other  children, 
having  apparently  forgotten  her  unfortunate 
habit.  The  parents  had  been  requested  not  to 
rebuke  her,  or  refer  to  it. 

Another  child,  with  a  like  affliction,  scolded, 
taunted,  and  ridiculed  at  home  and  at  school, 
grew  out  of  childhood  before  outgrowing  the 
difficulty,  and  bore  into  womanhood  a  face  dis- 
figured with  passionate  weeping,  which  had 
been  aggravated  by  the  cruelty  of  unthinking 
associates. 

A  child  entered  the  kindergarten  with  a 
habit  of  trotting  both  feet  upon  the  floor,  the 
strained  and  intense  expression  of  her  face 
meanwhile  being  painful  to  see.  The  mother 
told  a  pitiful  story  of  running  a  sewing-machine 
twelve  and  fourteen  hours  a  day  before  her 
birth,  the  wolf  at  the  door  having  been  just 
let  loose  by  the  protracted  illness  of  the  father 
of  the  child.  The  mother  had  coaxed  and 
scolded  the  little  one  by  turns,  not  knowing  any 


80  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

other  method  of  treatment ;  but  she  joyfully 
co-operated  with  me  in  another  way.  When 
the  trotting  began,  sometimes  a  low  cricket  was 
placed  under  the  weary  little  feet,  which  pre- 
vented the  action  as  long  as  the  position  was 
comfortable,  the  removal  of  the  cricket  proving 
another  surprise  and  diversion.  Sometimes  the 
child  was  asked  to  bring  a  box  or  slate,  just 
as  she  assumed  the  posture,  the  facial  expres- 
sion telling  beforehand  when  it  might  be  ex- 
pected. This  child  became  very  expert  in  the 
imitation  of  birds,  probably  because  given  a 
large  share  in  these  exercises,  with  a  view  to 
developing  the  muscles  in  an  opposite  direction 
from  that  to  which  they  were  predisposed.  At 
the  end  of  the  year  the  trouble  was  only  noticed 
at  times  of  unusual  excitement  or  weariness, 
and  at  the  age  of  six  years  the  pained  expres- 
sion of  the  face  and  the  tendency  to  trot  ap- 
peared to  be  overcome. 

One  delicate  case  may  be  cited  in  a  family  of 
different  station.  A  little  boy  contracted  a  habit 
considered  vicious  and  immoral  by  the  mother, 
the  father  looking  at  it  entirely  from  the  physi- 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  81 

cal  standpoint.  It  was  wisely  agreed  that  each, 
apply  a  remedy.  The  mother  attacked  the 
moral  fortress  with  prayers  and  precepts.  The 
father  (a  physician,  by  the  way)  believed  with 
Agassiz  that  a  physical  fact  is  as  sacred  as  a 
moral  principle,  and  conscientiously  pursued  his 
method.  The  boy  was  ambitious  to  grow  to 
papa's  stature,  as  what  boy  is  not  ?  He  was 
also  ambitious  to  do  all  his  height  and  strength 
would  permit  in  the  care  of  the  family  horse, 
and  the  occasion  for  the  first  rebuke  was  chosen 
when  the  boy  was  helping  to  harness  him.  "  I 
am  sorry  my  son  will  never  be  tall  enough  to 
put  on  the  head-stall,  nor  strong  enough  to 
drive  the  horse  alone." 

"  Why,  papa,  I  am  going  to  be  as  tall  and  as 
strong  as  you  !  " 

"  No,  my  son,  you  will  soon  stop  growing,  I 
fear ;  you  will  be  a  weak,  useless,  dwarfed  man, 
unless  you  break  yourself  of  a  bad  habit  which 
papa  cannot  break  for  you  ;  your  iiands  will 
grow  weak  and  trembling  before  you  have 
begun  a  man's  work." 

It  is  needless  to   say  that   the   horse    stood 


82  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

unharnessed,  and  the  boy  was  in  his  father's 
arms  at  the  first  grave  sentence,  and  a  sacred 
confidence  was  forever  established  between  them. 
The  hearty,  well-meant  promise,  "  never,  never 
to  do  it  again,"  was  checked  by  the  father,  who 
would  rather  have  a  promise  covering  a  speci- 
fied time  and  briefer  than  one  of  so  much 
indefiniteness  as  "  never,  never."  A  daily  con- 
fession, based  upon  perfect  truth  on  the  part  of 
the  child  and  patience  on  the  part  of  the  father, 
with  mutual  determination  to  conquer  the  evil, 
was  agreed  upon.  It  was  not  long  before  the 
time  was  lengthened  between  confidences,  as 
the  child's  strength  of  will  grew.  Aids  of  cold 
bathing,  diet,  and  exercise  were  added  to  the 
moral  support  of  the  mother  and  the  desired 
result  was  at  last  obtained. 

Turning  from  physical  to  mental  habits,  not 
imagining  that  we  can  actually  draw  dividing 
lines,  we  yet  feel  ourselves  upon  more  delicate 
ground,  and  offer  opinions  and  suggestions  with 
much  trepidation. 

Long  observation  of  children,  and  study  of 
mental  physiology  and  philosophy,  leads  to  one 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  83 

• 

conviction :  That  mental  habits  receive  a  strong 
bias  before  the  thought  of  mental  training  has 
entered  the  mind  of  the  average  mother.  Leav- 
ing out  the  question  of  heredity,  good  mental 
habits  find  their  beginnings  in  the  unconscious, 
undivided  attention  of  the  child  to  objects  which 
interest  it.  The  child  should  be  a  long  way  up 
the  "  hill  of  science "  before  he  is  able  of  his 
own  conscious  will  to  fix  his  mind  upon  one 
object  to  the  exclusion  of  another.  There  seems 
little  danger  in  allowing  an  infant  to  ponder 
subjects  which  present  themselves  with  suffi- 
cient vividness  to  hold  his  attention,  but  much 
danger  in  attempting  to  force  his  attention  to 
our  abstract  theories  and  jargon  in  a  language 
yet  unknown  to  him. 

We  often  cruelly  bewilder  the  child  in  its 
search  after  knowledge ;  our  merriment  at 
Baby's  blunders,  in  language  alone,  often  places 
a  difficulty  in  the  child's  path  which  he  will 
not  surmount  in  years.  Who  has  not  seen  the 
"  rattle-brained  "  child  whose  attention  is  diffi- 
cult to  hold  upon  either  work  or  play?  and 


84  CHILDHKN'S  HABITS. 

• 

who  shall  say  how  much  the  rattle-box  may 
have  to  do  with  that  condition  of  the  mind  ? 

More  than  two  thousand  years  ago  Plato 
wrote  :  "  Changes  of  toys  should  not  be  made 
too  rapidly,  for  fear  of  developing  instability  of 
character."  Is  it  not  time  to  heed  the  caution 
of  the  divine  philosopher  ? 

Can  we  picture  to  ourselves  what  our  state  of 
mind  would  be,  could  we  be  placed  upon  another 
planet,  with  laws  of  nature  quite  new  to  us,  the 
language  unknown,  and  we  deprived  of  power  of 
escape  from  some  grinning,  gibbering  giant  who 
should  consider  it  his  duty  to  incessantly  amuse 
us  with  a  drum  or  a  rattle,  refusing  us  a 
moment's  leisure  to  contemplate  objects  which 
interest  us ;  treating  our  blunders  with  hilarity, 
—  in  short,  doing  by  us  as  we  do  by  our  babe  ! 
"Would  we  be  likely  to  distinguish  ourselves  in 
wisdom  or  patience  under  such  treatment  ? 

Cultivating  thought,  even  the  crude  thinking 
of  infancy,  is  a  help  to  language ;  when  we  have 
done  what  we  can  to  let  the  child  use  its  powers 
of  observation,  and  it  desires  to  express  its 
thoughts  in  words,  we  should  help  it  to  correct 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  85 

expressions,  remembering  how  lasting  are  the 
habits  of  incorrect  speech. 

A  college  graduate,  a  man  of  considerable  abil- 
ity, says,  "  I  will  rise  the  window,"  having 
used  the  wrong  form  of  the  verb  in  childhood 
and  being  entirely  unable  to  speak  correctly 
whenever  a  thought  urges  him  to  spontaneous 
utterance. 

We  should  not  fret  the  child  by  constant 
rebukes ;  in  language  it  is  usually  sufficient  if 
we  take  care  of  our  example.  Children  correct 
their  language  more  effectually  than  we  can 
correct  it  if  we  use  a  wise  discretion. 

In  considering  children's  moral  habits  let  us 
keep  in  mind  the  greatest  principle  of  education, 
which  was  taught  by  Aristotle,  —  good  actions 
produce  good  habits.  In  forming  a  judgment 
of  the  child's  action  we  need  carefully  to  distin- 
guish between  the  act  and  the  motive  which 
prompted  it.  More  carefully  than  we  guard  the 
child  we  must  guard  ourselves  in  correcting  him, 
lest  some  unworthy  motive,  concerning  appear- 
ances merely,  or  personal  convenience,  shall  in- 
fluence our  conduct.  We  are  largely  responsible 


86  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

if  there  is  confusion  of  right  and  wrong  in  the 
mind  of  the  child.  Disapproval,  even  punish- 
ment, concerning  accidents  is  sometimes  more 
severe  than  for  an  act  of  selfishness,  and  selfish- 
ness seems  sometimes  the  only  immorality  of 
childhood  about  which  we  can  approximate  a 
correct  judgment.  That  which  we  think  lying 
is  often  confusion  of  mind  concerning  relations 
of  number  or  size  about  which  the  child  lacks 
judgment. 

A  dream  may  be  as  vivid  as  a  reality  to 
the  child  mind.  Two  little  girls  met  me  one 
morning  with  astonishment,  one  exclaiming,  "  I 
thought  you  was  dead !  Wasn't  you  dead  ? 
I  told  sister  you  was !  "  I  was  led  into  an 
alley  and  shown  a  hole  in  the  ground,  in  which 
those  children  thought  I  had  been  buried, —  one 
by  supposed  ocular  demonstration,  the  other  by 
received  testimony.  How  easily  they  might 
have  been  proven  guilty  of  lying  to  the  satis- 
faction of  a  careless  observer  ! 

It  is  wrong  to  accuse  of  theft  before  a  child 
can  be  expected  to  understand  anything  of 
property  rights.  A  comparatively  safe  basis  of 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  87 

judgment  may  rest  upon  the  secretiveness  or 
non-secretiveness  of  the  mind.  To  prevent  a 
habit  of  misappropriation,  the  child  should  be 
kindly  taken  to  the  rightful  owner  of  the  object 
so  appropriated,  and  gently  obliged  to  restore 
the  article,  never  permitting  the  mistaken  kind- 
ness of  allowing  him  to  keep  the  article  because 
the  owner  is  generous  or  indifferent. 

Assume  that  the  child  has  made  a  mistake 
which  he  is  willing  to  rectify,  not  that  he  is  a 
hardened  breaker  of  commandments.  » 

Moral  lectures  separated  from  immediate 
wrong  doing  seem  of  little  benefit.  "  Train  up 
a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go"  cannot  be 
wrenched  into  meaning  that  we  should  encour- 
age our  children  to  be  mere  theorizers  upon 
moral  subjects ;  hearers,  not  doers,  of  the  word. 
There  are  abundant  opportunities  to  begin  the 
training  of  a  child  in  right  doing  before  he  can 
understand  abstract  rules  of  action.  An  amus- 
ing anecdote  of  mis-applied  effort  may  not  be 
amiss.  A  little  child,  a  mere  babe,  was  sent 
to  Sunday-school,  where  pious,  but,  we  believe, 
mistaken  efforts  were  made  to  instil  moral 


88  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

principles  by  teaching  isolated  texts  of  scripture. 
The  child  learned  Mother  Goose  Melodies  on 
week  days  with  equal  pleasure,  and  upon  the 
occasion  of  a  public  display  of  juvenile  virtue 
and  wisdom,  the  little  one  was  placed  upon  a 
desk  in  order  that  she  might  be  seen  as  well  as 
heard.  With  perfect  gravity  she  recited  :  "  In 
those  days  came  John  the  Baptist,  preaching  in 
the  wilderness  of  Judea,  .saying:  Old  Mother 
Flipperty  Flapperty  fell  out  of  bed,  raised  up 
the  window  and  tucked  out  her  head,  and  said, 
John,  John,  our  old  gray  goose  is  dead ! " 

Nor  could  the  baby  heart  or  mind  grasp  the 
problem  presented  by  the  unseemly  mirth  which 
greeted  her  effort.  It  seems  an  easy  mental 
path  from  John  the  Baptist  to  the  John  with 
an  interest  in  the  old  gray  goose. 

With  G.  Stanley  Hall  we  believe  that  the 
right  should  not  be  an  exceptional  thing,  not  a 
medicine,  but  a  diet.  There  are  hourly  oppor- 
tunities to  insist  upon  the  unselfish  doing 
whereby  the  child  will  grow  into  habits  of 
righteous  living.  George  Eliot  never  wrote 
truer  words  than  that  the  ten  thousand  little 


CHILDKEN'S  HABITS.  89 

acts  in  the  right  directions  may  decide  the  im- 
portant choice  in  later  life  by  which  the  man 
will  rise  or  fall  when  a  supreme  temptation  is 
presented.  When  we  are  unable  to  judge  a 
single  act  by  its  possible  motive,  let  us  remem- 
ber the  statement  of  Plutarch,  "It  is  often  well 
to  pretend  not  to  have  observed  some  actions  of 
children." 

A  child  is  hardened  by  public  rebuke.  If  we 
would  help  him  to  grow  in  sensitiveness  to  our 
approval  and  disapproval,  let  us  privately 
rebuke  his  errors,  remembering  Rousseau's 
admonition :  "  You  would  indeed  make  a  mere 
animal  of  him  by  this  method  if  you  are  con- 
tinually directing  him  and  saying,  l  Go,  come, 
stay,  do  this ;  stop  doing  that ! '  If  your  head 
is  always  to  guide  his  arm,  his  own  head  will 
be  of  no  use  to  him." 

The  importance  of  children's  habits  cannot 
be  over-estimated,  but  we  are  too  apt  to  think 
of  the  child's  character  as  clay  to  be  moulded, 
rather  than  as  a  plant  in  God's  garden,  we 
being  permitted  to  go  "  thus  far  and  no 
farther."  The  eternal  boundaries  of  the  indi- 


90  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

viduality  of  life  protect  every  soul  from  the 
profane  touch  of  every  other  soul. 

An  obedient,  tractable  little  girl  once  turned 
upon  her  loving  guardian  with  this  question : 
"  Now,  if  you  should  tell  me  to  pick  up  this 
little  stick,  and  I  should  say,  '  I  will  not,'  could 
you  make  me  do  it?"  There  was  some  hesita- 
tion about  the  answer  and  an  attempted  eva- 
sion: "I  suppose  my  little  girl  would  do  it 
without  making,  if  I  told  her  to  do  it." 
"  Yes,  but  I  mean,  could  you  or  anybody  else 
MAKE  me  do  it  if  /  would  not  ?  "  And  then 
there  burst  upon  the  astonished  listener  this 
assertion  of  a  will  power  possibly  just  dis- 
covered by  the  young  explorer :  "  I  think 
you  couldn't  make  me  do  it,  if  you  whipped 
me  to  death ! "  "I  suppose  not,  my  child. 
We  are  so  made  that  we  can  do  as  we  will, 
and  it  is  a  dreadful  thing  to  will  to  do 
wrong." 

Long  silence  on  the  part  of  the  maiden  of 
five,  during  which  she  smilingly  picked  up  the 
stick  which  she  had  brought  into  the  discussion, 
as  if  she  felt  the  need  of  some  self-discipline, 


CHILDREN'S  HABITS.  91 

and  the  walk  was  resumed.  Soon  the  little 
philosopher  began  again :  "  Could  God  make 
me  pick  up  the  stick  if  I  wouldn't ? "  "I 
believe  not,  my  child." 

Here  were  mysteries  of  development  which 
set  the  elder  speaker  to  a  kind  of  thinking 
which  was  too  serious  to  admit  of  much  chatter, 
and  the  child,  evidently  relieved  of  a  weighty 
topic,  appeared  to  forget  it  in  play.  A  few 
days  later  she  asked  for  a  whole  day  in  which 
nobody  should  tell  her  to  do  anything;  a  day 
in  which  she  need  ask  no  permissions,  but 
should  do  everything  just  as  she  pleased.  The 
permission  was  somewhat  fearfully  granted, 
with  some  remark  upon  the  danger  of  it,  were 
she  not  a  little  girl  who  was  pleased  to  do 
right. 

The  trust  was  not  betrayed,  and  the  restraints 
placed  upon  herself  in  matters  in  which  she  dis- 
trusted her  own  judgment  were  remarkable. 
This  privilege  of  self-government  was  frequently 
asked  during  childhood  and  early  girlhood,  and 
these  days  grew  to  be  days  of  great  pleasure  to 
all  concerned. 


92  CHILDREN'S  HABITS. 

The  child  is  now  a  woman  of  rare  conscien- 
tiousness and  straightforwardness,  her  will  hav- 
ing been  trained  in  such  a  direction  that  it 
spontaneously  chooses  that  which  is  correct, 
her  thoughts  in  the  region  of  morals  rising 
entirely  above  the  mists  of  appearance  into  the 
clear  shining  of  eternal  right. 

It  is  not  argued  that  all  children  of  five  years 
of  age  could  be  thus  treated,  nor  is  it  assumed 
that  this  was  the  only  way  in  which  this  par- 
ticular child  could  have  been  trained,  —  there 
are  many  paths  that  lead  to  the  same  "  delec- 
table mountains."  In  whatever  one  we  choose 
to  tread,  let  us  remember  the  words  of  W.  T. 
Harris :  "  It  is  quite  necessary  that  we  should, 
as  educators,  never  forget  that  the  humblest 
child  —  nay,  the  most  depraved  child  —  has 
within  him  the  possibility  of  the  highest  angelic 
being." 


LEARNING    TO    USE    MONEY.3 


Not  what  I  have,  but  what  I  do,  is  my  kingdom.  —  CARLYLE. 

BEGINNING  work  several  years  since  in  one 
of  the  free  kindergartens  supported  by  private 
means,  I  was  not  only  distressed  by  the  improv- 
idence of  the  parents,  but  alarmed  by  the  ten- 
dencies of  thought  and  growing  character  in 
the  children.  A  little  boy  of  three  years  said 
one  day  in  a  burst  of  confidence :  "  When  I  git 
big  enough  to  work  and  git  money,  I'll  git 
drunk  like  my  papa  and  mamma."  On  being 
told  there  was  a  better  use  for  the  money 
earned  by  work,  he  asked  with  great  interest 
and  curiosity  if  I  did  not  get  drunk  Saturday 
nights.  When  asked  how  he  thought  I  pro- 
cured my  watch  with  which  he  happened  to  be 

:Read  before  the  Massachusetts  General  Conference  of  Char- 
ities. 

93 


94  LEARNING    TO    USE    MONEY. 

;  toying,  he  said,  "  Somebody  guv  it  to  you." 
I  answered  that  with  my  money  I  bought  books 
and  clothes  and  would  be  ashamed  to  have  any 
one  give  them  to  me.  His  wonder  and  aston- 
ishment I  shall  never  forget ;  and  his  questions 
as  to  the  cost  of  all  my  possessions,  the  amount 
of  my  money  Saturday  nights,  and  the  puzzle 
as  to  how  I  could  keep  it  over  Sunday,  showed 
an  awakening  perception  which  was  most  grati- 
fying. He  often  told  the  children  afterwards 
that  he  was  going  to  buy  a  horse  of  his  own. 
These  children,  whose  fathers  worked  on  the 
streets  and  whose  mothers  went  out  to  wash, 
brought  cents  almost  daily  which  were  wasted 
on  candy  and  greasy  cakes.  On  one  occasion 
we  took  them  to  the  country  for  the  day,  and 
one  little  girl  who  had  a  cent  began  to  inquire 
for  a  store  as  soon  as  we  arrived  there.  She 
was  told  that  the  stores  were  left  in  the  city ; 
but  she  thought  a  peanut-stand  would  meet 
her  needs,  and  on  hearing  that  there  were  no 
peanut-stands  in  the  woods,  she  began  a  fretful 
cry  for  candy,  for  peanuts,  for  cake,  for  gum, 
for  anything,  in  short,  for  which  she  could 


LEARNING   TO    USE    MONEY.  95 

exchange  her  cent.  "Buy  a  daisy!"  was  half 
playfully  suggested,  and  the  problem  was  solved. 
She  gave  her  cent  to  a  playmate  in  exchange 
for  a  daisy  and  was  happy.  She  had  failed  to 
gather  any  for  herself  while  fretting  for  a  store, 
but  now  that  the  cent  was  off  her  mind  she 
plucked  daisies  with  the  others  and  was  con- 
tented. 

To  correct  and  counteract  such  evil  tenden- 
cies as  these,  an  experiment  was  tried,  which 
we  believe  to  have  been  remarkably  suggestive: 
a  bank  in  the  shape  of  an  elephant  was  pro- 
cured, and  a  bank  account  opened  with  such  of 
the  children  as  thought  the  fun  of  pulling  the 
animal's  tail  and  thereby  throwing  their  cents 
from  his  trunk  into  his  mouth,  equal  to  that 
of  buying  candy  and  peanuts. 

Between  Christmas  and  the  following  June  a 
dollar  and  sixty  cents  were  placed  in  the  bank, 
thirty  children  having  made  deposits.  They 
were  charged  not  to  tease  for  money,  and  the 
parents  made  no  complaint  of  their  having  done 
so.  The  depositors  who  were  to  leave  kinder- 
garten for  public  school  in  September  were  al- 


96  LEARNING   TO    USE    MONEY. 

lowed  to  draw  and  spend  the  money  at  a  five- 
cent  store,  the  articles  from  which  they  were  to 
choose  being  placed  in  a  large  basket,  and  con- 
sisting of  a  large  variety  of  small  and  useful 
household  things,  as  well  as  toys.  On  our  way 
to  the  store,  a  child  with  sixteen  cents  stopped 
before  a  fruit  store,  saying,  "  I  want  a  banana." 
She  was  told  that  she  might  buy  it  on  her  re- 
turn if  she  should  want  it  then  and  should  have 
enough  money  left.  At  the  five-cent  store  she 
bought  a  fan  for  her  mother,  and  a  pocket-book 
for  herself,  into  which  she  put  her  remaining  six 
cents,  with  the  decided  expression,  "I've  bought 
all  I  want."  She  even  went  outside,  and  sat 
contentedly  on  the  steps  while  the  others  made 
their  purchases.  When  we  passed  the  fruit 
store  on  our  return,  she  asked  in  an  indifferent 
but  absurdly  business-like  tone  what  was  the 
price  of  peanuts;  but  she  spent  nothing  more, 
and  what  is  better,  gave  no  hints  that  she  would 
like  to  have  anybody  spend  for  her.  She 
carried  the  purse  with  the  six  cents  therein  to 
a  picnic  next  day,  taking  care  of  it  all  day 
without  losing  either  purse  or  money. 


LEARNING    TO    USE    MONEY.  97 

Another  child,  who  started  for  the  store  with 
seven  cents,  lost  one  in  its  frequent  exchange 
from  pocket  to  hand.  She  bought  a  doll,  and 
carried  a  cent  home  to  her  mother.  Another 
girl  bought  a  tea-set,  taking  her  remaining  two 
cents  to  her  mother  and  sister  "  for  a  present." 

A  boy  with  seven  cents  bought  a  hammer, 
taking  two  cents  home  to  keep.  Another  boy, 
with  twelve  cents,  bought  a  garden  rake  and  a 
rubber  ball,  putting  the  remainder  in  his  jacket 
pocket,  but  soon  handed  it  to  me,  saying,  "  Put 
this  in  the  bank  for  me,  and  be  sure  you  write 
it  down  in  the  bank  book."  This  anxiety  about 
his  security  was  quite  natural,  as  we  did  not 
carry  the  book  with  us,  and  he  thought  it  might 
be  forgotten.  He  carried  his  rubber  ball  to  the 
picnic  next  day,  and  was  both  generous  and 
careful  in  play  with  it. 

No  child  was  advised  or  influenced  in  its 
purchases  except  in  the  case  of  the  banana.  In 
every  instance  the  saving  was  entirely  spon- 
taneous, as  well  as  the  uses  to  which  they  put 
that  which  they  saved.  They  were  shown  arti- 
cles whi^h  they  could  have  bought  for  a  cent, 


98  LEARNING    TO    USE    MONEY. 

and  they  had  the  full  consent  of  their  parents 
to  buy  anything  of  which  the  teacher  approved, 
but  every  child  refused  to  spend  all  it  possessed. 
It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  this  money 
should  have  been  put  in  the  savings  bank  at 
interest ;  but  the  reward  of  self-denial  in  chil- 
dren should  not  be  placed  too  far  in  the  future. 
And  there  are  many  who  will  agree  in  the 
belief  that  the  judicious  spending  of  money  is 
as  much  a  matter  of  education  as  the  saving  of 
money,  and  that  early  training  in  this  direction 
may  be  a  needful  check  upon  miserly  tendencies 
which  might  follow  the  extreme  wastefulness 
against  which  we  are  working.  It  is  hoped 
that  seed  was  sown  which  will  bear  fruit  in 
future  domestic  economy. 


SOUND-BLINDNESS.1 


He  cared  for  their  heads  as  he  did  for  their  hearts,  demand- 
ing that  whatever  entered  them  should  be  plain  and  clear  as 
the  silent  moon  in  the  sky. — PESTALOZZI. 

SOUND-BLINDNESS  is  given  as  a  title,  not  be- 
cause of  its  fitness,  but  because  it  is  one  in  most 
common  use  and  is  made  to  cover  as  many 
shades  of  physical  disorders  as  used  to  be 
classed  under  heresy  in  the  region  of  morals. 

Actual  deafness  to  certain  tones  Dr.  Clarence 
Blake  (one  of  the  most  eminent  aurists  in 
America)  thinks  is  never  congenital,  as  is  blind- 
ness to  certain  colors,  exception  being  made  of 
cases  of  children  who  have  no  perception  of 
musical  sequence  and  of  tone  value,  who  never 
appreciate  and  cannot  reproduce  a  melody.  If 
other  cases  exist,  they  are  not  on  record. 

1  Read  before  the  National  Convention  of  Teachers  at  Nash- 
ville, Tenn. 

99 


100  SOUND-BLINDNESS. 

We  are  perfectly  familiar  with  the  fact  that 
children  learn  to  talk  by  a  slow  and  laborious 
process;  that  they  learn  to  see  and  hear  by 
processes  more  or  less  analagous  is  not  so  well 
recognized. 

It  is  true  that  all  infants  are  born  deaf  and 
remain  deaf  for  a  period,  varying  from  hours  to 
days,  but  comparatively  few  mothers  know  it  or 
would  believe  the  highest  authorities,  —  Preyer 
of  Germany  and  Perez  of  France. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  same  doubts  and  denials 
are  instantly  met  when  told  that  a  child  was 
unmistakably  affected  by  a  rose-colored  curtain 
when  only  twenty-three  days  old. 

From  observation  we  have  learned  that  hear- 
ing develops  more  slowly  than  sight ;  we  know 
the  infant  slowly  learns  to  direct  its  gaze  —  not 
being  so  well  endowed  as  a  chicken  in  many  of 
the  beginnings  of  life.  From  experiments  made 
by  myself  I  know  there  is  wide  variation  among 
children  of  the  ability  to  locate  sounds. 

That  there  were  such  defects  of  sight  as  color- 
blindness and  near-sightedness  the  public  has 
been  slow  to  recognize,  and  that  Dr.  Jeffries 


SOUND-BLINDNESS.  101 

met  with  stubborn  resistance  even  from  teachers 
when  he  began  his  investigations  gives  cause  for 
shame  and  regret. 

It  would  seem  that  from  analogy  alone  we 
should  have  looked  for  some  defects  of  hearing 
not  amounting  to  actual  deafness.  We  can  re- 
call such  expressions  as  "  you  must  hear  with 
your  elbows " ;  "  you  would  better  take  the 
wool  out  of  your  ears,"  and  others  of  like  pur- 
port, the  cruelty  of  which  can  only  be  excused 
on  the  ground  that  the  inability  to  hear  is 
attributed  to  inattention  by  those  who  make 
such  remarks,  for  no  one  would  use  sarcasm 
upon  a  child  afflicted  with  partial  blindness, 
nor  would  partial  deafness  be  so  treated  if 
understood. 

I  once  read  to  a  young  girl  who  was  learn- 
ing to  cook  that  onions  were  good  for  the 
mucous  membrane. 

"  Good  for  'membrin  !  "  she  exclaimed;  "  then 
I'll  eat  onions  the  rest  of  my  life,  for  I  never 
could  remember  anything." 

I  could  not  help  laughing,  but  it  led  me  to 
closer  observation  of  the  girl,  who  proved  to 


102  SOUND-BLINDNESS. 

have  a  disorder  of  the  ear,  which  blurred  her 
understanding  of  nearly  all  that  she  heard. 

Permission  to  enter  the  public  schools  for  the 
purpose  of  testing  the  hearing  of  pupils  was 
granted  by  the  School  Board  of  Boston,  and 
standing  upon  the  teacher's  platform,  the  follow- 
ing words  were  pronounced  after  testing  the 
pitch  and  loudness  of  voice  by  a  few  words 
addressed  to  the  master,  who  stood  at  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  room:  ultramarine,  altruistic, 
frustrate,  ultimatum,  ululate,  Alcibiades,  and  un- 
augmented.  Time  was  given  between  the  pro- 
nunciation of  each  word  for  the  slowest  pupil 
to  write  it  upon  a  slip  of  paper,  words  being 
repeated  as  often  as  required,  some  of  them 
having  been  clearly  pronounced  five  successive 
times.  In  the  Latin  School,  two  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  boys,  whose  ages  range  from  twelve 
to  twenty  years,  were  given  this  test,  eighty- 
four  of  whom  made  corresponding  mistakes 
in  the  vowel  sounds,  their  papers  showing,  e.g., 
altramarine,  ultruistic,  /rostrate,  altimatum,  elu- 
late,  olulate,  alulate,  and  unolmented.  At  this 
stage  of  the  investigation  Dr.  Clarence  Blake 


SOUND-BLINDNESS.  103 

was  consulted,  who  gave  a  much  better  list  of 
test  words ;  viz. :  fan,  log,  long,  pen,  dog,  pod, 
land,  few,  and  cat. 

The  eighty-four  pupils  who  confused  the 
vowel  sounds  in  the  polysyllables  were  seated 
in  their  various  rooms  in  the  front  row,  while 
the  observer  stood  at  the  back  of  the  room, 
pronouncing  these  monosyllables  but  once,  the 
pupils  having  had  notice  of  this  arrangement 
that  they  might  give  instant  attention.  Only 
four  of  the  eighty-four  spelled  all  these  mono- 
syllables correctly,  their  papers  showing  the 
same  confusion  of  sounds  as  in  the  poly- 
syllables. 

-• 

A  final  and  individual  test  with  an  aurist's 
tuning-fork  was  now  given  the  eighty  pupils 
who  had  failed  in  correct  hearing,  Dr.  Blake 
kindly  furnishing  the  fork  (C,  562  vs.)  and 
directing  its  use  ;  the  fork  was  struck  with  a 
rubber-covered  hammer,  the  pupil  standing 
twelve  feet  away,  with  his  back  to  the  observer. 
Two  cases  of  deafness  were  found,  which  were 
known  to  the  teacher,  but  not  to  the  master. 
Several  doubtful  cases  were  found,  which  were 


104  SOUND-BLINDNESS. 

given  the  benefit  of  the  doubt,  as  it  was 
impracticable  to  have  them  examined  by  a 
specialist. 

In  the  English  High  School,  two  hundred 
and  twenty-three  boys  between  the  ages  of 
thirteen  and  eighteen  were  tested  with  the 
polysyllables,  one  hundred  and  five  of  whom 
made  mistakes  corresponding  to  those  already 
noted.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  five,  ninety- 
two  misspelled  from  one  to  four  of  the  mono- 
syllables, the  errors  being  in  general  a  repetition 
of  those  made  in  the  Latin  School,  in  which 
pupils  are  received  prior  to  graduation  from 
grammar  school,  while  all  English  High 
School  pupils  are  graduates  of  grammar  depart- 
ments. 

In  the  Comins  Grammar  School  five  hundred 
and  thirty  pupils  between  the  ages  of  eight 
and  fourteen  were  tested  with  the  mono- 
syllables, only  thirty-four  of  whom  spelled  all 
the  words  correctly.  The  tests  here  gave 
fairer  results,  the  same  room  being  used  for 
every  pupil  tested,  and  the  test  words  being 
given  to  classes  of  sixteen  only,  there  being 


SOUND-BLINDNESS.  105 

no  other  pupils  in  the  room  and  no  outside 
distractions ;  with  the  tuning-fork  first  used 
there  were  unavoidable  variations  of  weight 
in  the  stroke,  dependent  upon  the  mental  and 
physical  condition  of  the  observer,  and  Dr. 
Blake  kindly  furnished  another  more  easily 
manipulated.  Five  children  were  found  who 
could  not  hear  this  tone  twelve  feet  away,  and 
in  neither  case  had  the  teachers  or  master 
suspected  the  existence  of  any  disorder  of  the 
ear.  Two  of  these  were  among  the  brightest 
in  the  room,  and  were  seated  furthest  from 
their  teachers  ;  the  others  were  supposed  to  be 
dull  and  inattentive.  After  the  discovery  of 
deafness,  these  pupils  were  particularly  ob- 
served, and  the  bright  ones  were  found  to  have 
the  habit  of  closely  watching  the  lips  of  any 
one  speaking,  bending  to  one  side  during  dic- 
tation exercises,  in  order  not  to  lose  sight  of 
the  teacher's  face. 

We  see  from  these  tests  one  in  each  hundred 
in  this  grammar  school  has  some  disorder  of  the 
ear.  To  know  if  the  five  suffer  from  the  same 
form  of  disease  would  require  examination  by 


106  SOUND-BLINDNESS. 

a  specialist.  Dr.  Clarence  Blake  consented  to 
make  the  examination,  but  I  was  unable  to 
take  the  time  and  trouble  required  to  carry 
the  work  further. 

One  is  immediately  struck  by  the  differ- 
ence between  final  tests  in  the  high  schools 
and  grammar  departments,  but  is  it  not  likely 
that  the  pupils  in  grammar  school  who  work 
under  the  disadvantage  of  such  a  disorder  never 
get  beyond  the  grammar  grade  ? 

What  the  per  cent  would  be  in  the  primary 
grades  is  matter  of  conjecture,  but  it  would  be 
interesting  to  trace  the  relation  between  tru- 
ancy and  sound-blindness,  and  between  general 
lack  of  interest  in  school  work  and  duliiess  of 
hearing  not  even  known  by  the  child  as  exist- 
ing at  all. 

The  tests  made  prove  conclusively  the  ex- 
istence of  an  obstacle  to  the  acquirement  of 
information  on  the  part  of  pupils  which  has 
never  been  sufficiently  recognized  as  existent 
and  the  causes  of  which  should  be  made  the 
subject  of  special  examination. 

Agassiz  wrote,  "  A  physical  fact  is  as  sacred 


SOUND-BLINDNESS.  107 

as  a  moral  principle."  In  this  matter  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  physical  fact  of  the  gravest 
importance,  one  which  may  be  so  closely  inter- 
woven with  moral  consequences  that  the  teacher 
may  not  be  able  to  excuse  himself  if  he  con- 
tinues to  overlook  it.  Every  child  in  our  pub- 
lic schools  should  have  the  hearing  tested  at 
longer  or  shorter  intervals.  It  is  but  just  that 
the  dull  or  inattentive  child  should  have  the 
benefit  of  such  light  as  a  test  of  this  kind 
would  throw  upon  his  dulness  or  inattention, 
for  the  simple  changing  of  his  seat  from  the 
back  or  middle  of  the  room  to  a  point  where 
he  can  hear  all  the  teacher's  words,  might 
prove  that  there  are  some  causes  for  inattention, 
mischievousness,  and  dulness  that  cannot  be 
attributed  to  the  perverseness  of  the  child,  nor 
can  we  flippantly  assert  that  stupidity  is  his 
birthright. 


A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE.1 


A  physical  fact  is  as  sacred  as  a  moral  principle.  —  AGASSIZ. 

BEFORE  entering  upon  this  discussion,  it  is 
necessary  to  deprecate  the  one-sidedness  with 
which  it  is  usually  treated.  The  rule  seems 
to  have  been  either  to  let  the  matter  wholly 
alone  as  immodest,  or  to  fly  to  the  other 
extreme,  which  would  preach  its  importance 
from  the  pulpit,  discuss  it  at  table,  and  teach 
it  in  school.  It  is  natural  that  a  physician 
whose  specialty  is  diseases  relating  to  this 
side  of  life  should  magnify  the  importance  of 
all  that  relates  to  it ;  but  we  must  insist 
that  it  should  be  neither  neglected  nor  mag- 
nified. The  great  aurist  will  tell  us  that 
our  asylums  for  idiots  would  be  depleted  if 

1  Read  before  the  Women's  Physiological  Union,  Boston, 
Mass. 

108 


A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE.  109 

proper  care  were  given  the  ear ;  the  great 
oculist  will  show  that  most  brain  troubles 
originate  in  improper  care  of  the  eyes ;  but 
the  most  disastrous  of  all  hobbies  is  this 
hobby  of  sex.  Notwithstanding  the  dangers 
that  beset  us,  we  must  face  our  difficulties, 
taking  care  to  keep  in  mind  the  nice  adjust- 
ment of  all  things  natural,  and  help,  if  we 
can,  simply  to  preserve  that  adjustment. 

That  in  this  country  the  adolescent  period 
is  much  shorter  than  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  has  been  overlooked  even  by  many 
physicians.  It  is,  nevertheless,  a  fact  that 
the  physiological  changes  are  exceptionally 
sudden,  and  that  our  boys  and  girls  pass 
through  this  fundamental  crisis  without  the 
safeguards  which  it  is  our  duty  to  provide. 

Most  mothers  are  aware  of  the  more  com- 
mon outward  signs  of  this  approaching  change; 
but  many  think  their  whole  duty  performed 
when  some  special  temporary  care  has  been 
taken  that  for  a  few  months  colds  are  not 
contracted.  In  case  of  any  general  derange- 
ment of  health  the  physician  is  more  promptly 


110  A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE. 

consulted  at  this  period  even  by  the  most 
ignorant  parents.  No  doubt  every  mother  of 
a  boy  or  girl  of  fourteen  could  describe  the 
external  changes  which  attend  this  period ; 
but  if  every  mother  knew,  as  does  the  physi- 
cian, that  the  change  in  her  boy's  voice  bears 
little  comparison  to  the  greater  change  which 
takes  place  in  his  brain,  and  that  the  marked 
and  rapid  growth  of  her  girl's  bust  is  not  as 
wonderful  as  the  actual  physical  change  of  - 
her  heart  which  has  not  been  complete  in  its 
form  or  action  until  now, — if  mothers  in 
general  knew  this  and  teachers  understood  it 
more  fully,  - —  then  a  paper  of  this  nature 
would  be  superfluous. 

Important  as  are  the  physical  changes,  they 
are  not  of  such  vital  consequence  as  the  psy- 
chological ones. 

Poetry  has  paid  its  tribute  in  every  tongue 
to  this  rose-hued  day ;  religious  rites  have 
marked  its  advent  in  all  tribes  and  nations. 
I,t  remains  for  Science  to  lay  her  steadfast 
hand  upon  that  which  poetry  has  unwittingly 
enervated  and  religion  unconsciously  dese- 


A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE.  Ill 

crated,  not  in  irreverence  nor  in  a  spirit  of 
captiousness,  but  in  all  earnestness  to  call 
attention  to  some  mistakes  which  have  to  do 
with  skepticism  and  irreligion  no  less  than 
with  the  physical  deterioration  which  has 
long  been  noted  among  the  youth  of  our  day. 
Divinity  doctors  know  that  revival  statistics 
show  more  conversions  at  this  period  than  at 
any  other.  Perhaps  revivalist  preachers  do 
not  know  the  wide-spread  feeling  of  contempt 
often  expressed  in  country  and  village  of  the 
annual  convert  who  began  wasting  his  spirit- 
ual forces  in  emotional  displays  when  but  a 
boy  at  a  protracted  meeting.  Hospitals  of  all 
kinds,  especially  for  the  insane,  show  that  in 
this  critical  period  lie  the  roots  of  hosts  of 
diseases  that  crop  out  in  later  life,  and  none 
is  more  fruitful  than  that  of  "  emotional  prod- 
igality "  at  this  time.  This  particular  error 
is  founded  upon  the  well-known  plasticity  of 
youth,  and  because  of  this  plasticity  the  child 
should  be  protected  from  all  one-sided,  emo- 
tional influences.  We  might  go  back  to  Plato 
with  great  profit  for  our  examples.  How  in- 


112  A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE. 

spiring  his  lofty  enthusiasm  concerning  the 
young!  How  great  and  with  what  power  for 
good  his  picture  of  the  self-poised  Socrates 
who  met  the  beautiful  Greek  youths  with  the 
then  necessary  tribute  to  their  physical  per- 
fections, but  never  left  them  to  dwell  on 
these  things,  but  called  them  higher  so  skil- 
fully that  they  hardly  knew  the  divine  im- 
petus had  been  from  the  outside. 

Ancient  and  modern  writers  and  teachers 
have  dwelt  upon  the  psychological  importance 
of  this  period.  The  mass  of  literature  upon  its 
physiological  side  alone  is  bewildering,  but  that 
great  German  philosophers  of  modern  times  con- 
sider it  of  sufficient  importance  to  write  whole 
volumes  upon  it,  as  Schneider,  Kraft-Ebing, 
and  others  have  done,  may  well  cause  us  to  look 
seriously  into  the  subject. 

In  view  of  these  facts  a  paper  was  sent  to  a 
large  number  of  parents,  teachers,  and  physi- 
cians in  America,  with  questions  about  personal 
observations  which  touched  both  the  physiology 
and  the  psychology  of  the  matter. 

Notes    on    general    health,    temper,    studies, 


A    STUDY    OF   ADOLESCENCE.  113 

dreams,  and  tastes  at  this  period  were  sought. 
The  returns  brought  out  one  point  rather  more 
prominently  than  was  anticipated;  viz.,  the 
importance  of  dreams  at  this  stage  of  life. 

So  many  cases  were  reported  as  not  particu- 
larly noticeable,  except  the  increase  of  dreams, 
either  beautiful  or  troubled,  that  this  was  made 
an  especial  point  of  investigation,  keeping  in 
mind  the  action  of  the  brain  in  dreaming  and 
the  close  relation  between  the  brain  and  the 
sexual  organs.  These  returns  show  a  marked 
increase  in  the  quantity  of  dreams  at  this  pe- 
riod, and  enough  has  been  gathered  to  give 
weight  to  the  theory  that  dreams  are  rhythmical, 
either  increasing  or  decreasing  at  certain  times 
in  the  month.  The  returns  also  indicate  that 
radical  changes  are  demanded  in  the  mode  of 
life  and  the  subject-matter  of  education  at  the 
dawn  of  this  period.  Changes  in  hygiene,  in 
.food,  dress,  and  social  life  are  imperatively 
needed.  Physicians  and  educators  may  warn  in 
vain,  but  they  must  continue  to  make  their 
demands.  The  dress  of  girls  has  been  so  wisely 
modified  that  statistics  show  an  increase  in 


114  A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE. 

average  height  and  waist  measure  in  the  last 
twenty  years.  If  some  dress  adapted  to  this 
climate,  but  fashioned  upon  the  model  of  ease 
to  say  nothing  of  grace,  which  Greek  and  Ro- 
man youths  wore  when  physical  beauty  was  at 
its  highest,  we  might  hope  to  see  a  long  list  of 
weaknesses  and  crimes  reduced  to  the  minimum, 
instead  of  waxing  to  an  alarming  extent.  The 
dress  of  our  boys  of  to-day  is  about  as  unhygi- 
enic as  it  is  ungraceful  and  uncomfortable. 

Our  errors  in  the  subject-matter  taught  are 
equally  grave. 

Philosophy,  as  at  present  forced  upon  imma- 
ture minds,  is  most  disastrous.  Introspection  , 
and  any  study  which  leads  to  it  should  be 
discouraged  at  this  period.  Questions  of  the 
reality  of  the  external  world,  and  of  personal 
existence  at  this  time  of  life,  are  as  irrational 
as  are  the  morbid  appeals  to  morbid  emojjeas 
in  the  revival  meetings  held  for  children.  "We- 
challenge  no  motives  in  either  case ;  but  we 
must  condemn  a  course  of  philosophy  which 
makes  restless  iconoclasts  of  young  men,  as 
severely  as  we  criticise  religious  methods  which 
make  a  skeptical  man  of  almost  every  over- 


A    STUDY    OF    ADOLESCENCE.  115 

pious  boy.  We  have  no  right  to  play  upon  the  tx 
emotions  at  this  critical  time  of  life;  they  who 
do  so  are  directly  responsible  for  much  spiritual 
torpor  and  physical  derangement  in  later  years. 
Every  study,  every  occupation,  every  interest  in 
life,  at  this  time  should  look  to  the  conservation 
of  force,  and  not  to  its  dispersion,  to  /a  rigid 
economy  of  spiritual  enthusiasm,  combined  with 
a  careful  training  of  the  muscular  powers. 

We  must  hold  the  attention  and  interest  of 
our  pupils  without  unduly  exciting  them.  The 
subject  of  studies  cannot  be  dismissed  without 
a  protest  against  botany  with  its  present 
nomenclature,  introduced  as  it  is  just  when 
we  would  keep  the  thoughts  of  our  boys  and 
girls  occupied  with  that  which  cannot  be 
centred  upon  themselves.  I  know  there  is 
a  theory  that  physiology  should  be  taught 
through  botany;  but  it  seems  pernicious  to 
lead  the  brightest  and  most  curious  minds 
away  from  plant  life  by  all  this  physiological 
phraseology  with  the  special  side  of  reproduc- 
tion of  animal  life  made  prominent  in  so  many 
of  the  botanical  terms.  It  destroys  that  ad- 
justment for  which  we  plead. 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 


What  men  think  of  the  world  depends  upon  what  they  know 
of  it. — G.  STANLEY  HALL. 

ONE  hundred  and  thirteen  schoolboys,'  be- 
tween the  ages  of  thirteen  and  eighteen,  were 
asked  to  write  their  first  thoughts  or  mental 
images  on  seeing  the  words  being,  the  infinite, 
literature,  abstraction,  number,  play,  coldness, 
horror,  heat,  faith,  and  fun.  A  word  was  writ- 
ten upon  the  blackboard  and  a  few  moments 
given  the  pupils  to  transcribe  their  impressions, 
when  the  word  was  erased  and  another  written. 
A  few  minutes  each  day  were  given  to  the 
exercise,  some  three  or  four  words  being  given 
in  succession,  number,  play,  and  coldness  hap- 
pening to  be  given  at  one  sitting.  Many  of 
the  images  have  the  local  coloring  of  the 

116 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       117 

time  and  place.  The  boys  had  been  studying 
Sir  Walter  Scott,  as  their  papers  reveal,  and 
during  the  week  of  the  experiment  the  entire 
city  of  Boston  was  thrilled  with  horror  by  a 
suburban  railroad  disaster,  the  shadow  of 
which  is  cast  upon  these  papers,  which  also 
reflects  the  enthusiasm  of  the  prize  drill,  the 
papers  as  a  whole  giving  one  the  impression 
of  a  kaleidoscope  where  thoughts  take  the 
place  of  colored  glass,  the  feelings  regulating 
the  symmetry  of  the  forms. 

Under  being  forty-four  wrote  "human  be- 
ing," which  may  or  may  not  have  been  an 
attempt  to  define ;  eighteen  wrote  the  name 
of  the  Deity  under  different  forms ;  eight 
wrote  "something  living";  four  gave  it  as 
"  our  life  " ;  two  as  "  human  existence  " ;  three 
specifying  Wallace,  Adam  and  Blanche,  "  my- 
self " ;  others  giving  general  examples,  as 
monkey,  dog,  horse,  man  and  woman.  If 
one  could  but  know  if  the  man  were  a  war- 
rior, the  dog  a  Saint  Bernard,  the  monkey  a 
wild  one  in  a  cocoanut  tree,  or  one  caged  in 
a  zoological  garden,  or  passing  its  scarlet  cap 


118       MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 

for  the  organ-grinder,  —  then  the  interest  would 
be  increased. 

Creation  and  something  that  cannot  be  lim- 
ited were  suggested,  and  one  poetic  mind 
gave  us  this :  "  I  see  a  beautiful  being  over 
a  baby's  cradle,  rocking  him  to  sleep."  A 
minute  description  of  that  "beautiful  being" 
would  be  valuable.  Six  gave  no  expression 
to  their  thought  about  the  word,  which  might 
have  been  from  shyness  about  giving  the 
thought  to  another,  or  a  misunderstanding 
of  the  experiment,  and  perhaps  from  a  lack 
of  any  impression. 

Under  the  word  infinite,  twenty-nine  directly 
named  God ;  one,  love  of  God,  none  of  these 
being  of  the  seven  who  named  Him  under 
"  being"  ;  twenty-one  gave  no  expression  ;  five, 
the  algebraic  quantity  oo  ;  five,  the  sky ;  three, 
the  infinite  number ;  two,  the  unknown  ;  one, 
the  problem  never  finished,  10  -*-  3 ;  something 
dark  ;  the  future  ;  number  of  wonderful  things  ; 
number  of  boys ;  something  beyond  us  ;  space ; 
distance ;  "  a  long  line  of  which  I  cannot  see  the 
end";  small  thing;  the  universe;  a  large  tree 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       119 

with  infinite  number  of  leaves ;  a  sermon  in 
which  the  minister  said,  God  is  infinite  love ; 
the  air ;  time  ;  city ;  a  large  man ;  the  Globe 
building,  —  to  this  the  boy  added,  parenthet- 
ically, "  infinitely  large  "  ;  miraculous  ;  everlast- 
ing ;  heavenly  spirits  ;  space  ;  day  ;  end  of  be- 
ing ;  life  everlasting ;  Venus  on  the  sun ;  some- 
thing to  happen  ;  form  of  verb  ;  grammar ;  book 
entitled  Letters  from  Hell.  No  blanks  were 
given  with  this  word,  but  there  were  four  under 
literature,  a  suggestive  fact. 

To  twenty-six  literature  suggested  books,  some 
specifying  good  books,  story  books,  etc. ;  seven 
wrote  reading ;  three,  history ;  three,  Longfel- 
low ;  three,  Scott ;  three,  Waverley ;  Ivanhoe, 
Dickens,  The  Inferno,  Shakespeare,  Homer,  and 
Milton  each  having  had  honorable  mention. 
Two  dime  novels  were  suggested.  Among  pic- 
turesque thoughts  appeared  :  "  A  man  printing 
a  book";  "with  literature  comes  sight  of  im- 
mense library  with  books  of  all  ages  and  peo- 
ples"; "ancient  Greece,  especially  Athens  and 
old  Greek  tablets."  A  painting,  funny  composi- 
tion, piles  of  papers,  and  something  classical  are 


120       MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 

as  definite,  perhaps,  as  some  of  the  adult  notions 
of  literature. 

Under  abstraction  there  were  thirty-seven 
blanks  ;  twenty-three  attempted  to  define  or  il- 
lustrate, some  of  these  efforts  being  too  unique 
for  omission,  as  flavoring  for  ice  cream ;  flavor- 
ing put  up  in  bottles ;  getting  a  tooth  pulled  ; 
apples  and  baskets ;  spoke  of  a  wheel ;  kind- 
ness, and  a  man  with  head  resting  on  hands, 
elbows  resting  on  marble  top  table  ;  a  boy  lean- 
ing on  his  hand  and  looking  as  if  he  saw  some- 
thing away  off ;  sitting  at  a  window  in  the 
country  looking  blankly  into  the  air ;  a  crazy 
person  comes  to  mind ;  "  I  picture  a  man  in  deep 
thought " ;  works  of  nature,  especially  beauti- 
ful scenery.  Others  wrote  kindness,  goodness, 
grammar,  future,  a  wood,  part  of  speech,  an 
abstract  person,  something  small,  pleasure  of 
having  plenty  of  money,  baskets  of  flowers,  and 
this  list  of  words  about  which  I  ain  writing. 

Under  number,  thirty-seven  tried  to  define  or 
illustrate  ;  fifteen  wrote  that  it  brought  to  mind 
various  numbers,  1,000,000,  1,  2,  etc. ;  eleven 
left  a  blank ;  nine  wrote  a  figure  or  figures  ; 


MENTAL    IMAGERY    OF    BOYS.  121 

two,  algebra.  Limitation  was  twice  suggested, 
and  under  the  preliminary  "  it  brought  to 
mind,"  or  "  it  puts  in  my  mind,"  were  written : 
a  row  of  blocks ;  a  collection  of  men ;  the  times 
I  have  been  in  swimming ;  the  wonders  of 
arithmetic  ;  and  number  30  La  Grange  Street. 
Others  stated  without  explanation :  the  first 
page  of  an  arithmetic  ;  the  score  in  a  game  of 
tennis ;  a  number  of  soldiers  ;  a  lot  of  people 
on  the  Fourth  of  July ;  sand  in  the  sea  ;  crowds 
of  people  in  various  places.  One  boy  wrote 
simply  "  newspaper,"  and  another  that  number 
led  to  numerals.  A  connection  was  made  be- 
tween this  and  the  two  succeeding  words,  viz. : 
"  On  seeing  number  I  thought  of  a  number  of 
boys  —  think  of  them  yet  as  I  see  play,  and  the 
same  group  appears  to  be  playing,  but  growing 
cold  toward  each  other." 

Three  wrote  unreservedly :  I  see  a  figure ;  I 
see  a  figure  on  the  door ;  I  see  an  unreadable 
number  that  I  once  saw.  The  italics  are,  of 
course,  my  own. 

Under  play  thirty-seven  defined  or  illustrated ; 
five  left  blanks,  one  of  whom  gave  the  most 


122       MENTAL  IMAGEHY  OF  BOYS. 

elaborate  of  the  mental  pictures  under  abstrac- 
tion ;  seven  specified  children,  some  designating 
little  children,  and  kittens  playing  in  various 
ways  ;  thirteen  thought  of  base  ball ;  four,  of  a 
theatrical  performance,  one  of  these  specifying 
Lady  of  the  Lake ;  two  thought  of  Richard  the 
Third  ;  four,  of  lawn  tennis ;  three,  of  piano 
playing,  one  giving  this :  "  Play  brings  to  me 
the  figure  of  a  person  seated  at  a  piano  engaged 
in  playing  it."  One  wrote  without  preliminary : 
"A  large  stage  over  which  are  some  red  cur- 
tains and  a  very  small  man  declaiming."  The 
vividness  of  this  sketch  leaves  the  bad  construc- 
tion of  the  sentence  for  an  after-impression. 

Three  wrote :  "  I  see  boys  or  children  running 
round  "  ;  "I  see  the  boys  play  "  ;  "I  see  some- 
body playing." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  the  first  of  these 
vivid  images  that  the  boy  saw  more  clearly  as 
he  wrote,  or  he  would  not  have  changed  his 
sentence  from  "  I  see  boys  "  to  "I  see  boys  or 
children." 

Twenty-six  defined  coldness,  the  spiritual  and 
physical  significance  being  about  equally  repre- 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       123 

sented ;  twenty-six  thought  of  winter,  or  a  day 
in  winter ;  seven  simply  wrote  ice ;  five  gave 
blanks;  others  giving  such  picturesque  details 
as  these  :  a  man  with  a  very  stern  face  ;  a  large 
field  of  ice ;  a  frosty  ground  with  here  and 
there  a  stump ;  I  think  of  the  look  of  coldness 
on  the  face  of  a  high-toned  boy  toward  his 
poorly  dressed  comrades  ;  surly  temper ;  anger ; 
shivering  ;•  Greeley's  expedition  to  the  North 
Pole ;  proud  person ;  firmness  in  a  man ;  mak- 
ing a  call  on  a  young  lady  who  is  not  at  home ; 
dressing  myself  in  a  big  overcoat ;  not  being 
sympathetic  toward  the  poor ;  don't  notice  any 
of  your  parents  ;  I  think  of  unhospitality ;  as- 
sociated with  kicking  the  feet  against  the  dash- 
board of  a  horse  car,  and  an  ulster  with  a  high 
collar ;  Iceland  ;  sharp  cutting  wind  ;  I  see  the 
frost  and  snow  ;  I  see  a  cold,  haughty  person ; 
dark  gray  objects  appear. 

Fifty-one  defined  heat ;  five  left  blanks ;  three 
thought  of  a  stove  ;  two,  of  a  furnace  ;  one,  of  a 
furnace  for  melting  glass,  and  one  of  a  smelting- 
furnace ;  one,  of  a  register,  and  another,  of  a 
radiator,  gilded  ;  one,  of  the  school-house  boiler- 


124  MENTAL    IMAGEKY    OF    BOYS. 

room  ;  two,  of  summer  ;  two,  of  fire  ;  three,  of 
the  sun ;  one,  of  the  desert  of  Sahara  ;  the 
others,  of  parading  around  the  city;  a  red-hot 
ball  rolling  on  the  floor ;  melted  butter  ;  anger ; 
a  day  in  East  Lexington  with  buzzing  of  locusts ; 
a  fat  man  trying  to  get  his  breath ;  a  large  vat 
under  which  is  a  fire  filled  with  saints. 

Fifty-five  attempted  to  define  faith;  four- 
teen left  blanks ;  three  mentioned  dogs ;  two 
wrote  simply  a  cross  ;  one,  a  church  ;  one,  a 
catechism ;  one,  a  prayer-book ;  and  others 
such  typical  subjects  as  Daniel  in  the  lions' 
den ;  tableau  once  seen,  picture  of  Faith,  Hope 
and  Charity ;  one  thought  of  the  Supreme 
Being,  and  another  of  an  Irishman's  exclama- 
tion. To  one  was  suggested  the  water-cooler 
on  the  Common  ;  to  another  the  story  of  Saint 
Elizabeth.  One  wrote  this :  "  Faith  brings 
a  figure  of  a  child  on  a  high  fence,  a  person 
below  trying  to  get  it  to  come  down,  and 
then  the  child  drops."  Another  gave  this 
dramatic  picture:  "A  girl  following  a  very 
ugly  man  through  a  dark  tunnel."  And  still 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       125 

another :  "  A  frightened  child  clinging  to  its 
father  for  protection." 

It  was  surprising  that  the  word  fun  proved 
the  least  interesting  of  all,  eight  even  leaving 
a  blank.  I  half  suspect  these  boys  did  not 
choose  to  write  their  notions  of  fun.  A  smil- 
ing face,  a  laughing  boy,  and  a  girl  laughing 
were  suggested,  one  boy  writing :  "  I  see 
boys  playing." 

Fifty-two  denned  or  illustrated  horror,  eight 
of  whom  wrote  "murder,"  and  one  "assassina- 
tion"; some  left  blanks;  others  wrote  death, 
fire,  an  avalanche,  drowning  and  battle,  two 
only  suggesting  ghosts.  It  would  be  interest- 
ing to  know  whether  each  thought  of  a  par- 
ticular fire,  death,  or  battle.  One  wrote : 
"  I  imagine  a  murder " ;  another,  simply  a 
picture  of  a  man  to  be  hung.  Others  as 
follows  :  a  beer-saloon ;  one  being  killed ;  the 
accident  at  Roslindale  ;  a  horrible-looking  word, 
-looks  as  if  it  should  be  spelled  hell;  makes 
me  think  of  seeing  some  one  in  distress ;  makes 
me  think  of  some  terrible  accident ;  a  woman 
and  a  mouse ;  a  lady  looking  at  an  alligator ; 


126  MENTAL    IMAGERY    OF    BOYS. 

seeing  a  man  run  over  here ;  a  boy  I  saw 
stabbed,  and  another  run  over  by  a  horse-car ; 
a  fellow  holding  his  hand  in  the  air,  his  hair 
standing  on  end;  an  old  lady  holding  up  both 
hands;  horror  is  represented  by  a  man  falling 
from  a  great  height,  and  many  people  are 
watching  him;  horror  brought  to  my  mind  a 
person  dying  who  regarded  death  with  horror ; 
makes  me  think  of  the  time  I  was  chased ; 
makes  me  think  of  the  feeling  I  would  have  if 
a  large  spider  were  crawling  over  me ;  the  feel- 
ing I  imagine  if  I  were  drowning;  I  think  of 
a  robbery ;  something  cringing ;  a  train,  a 
smash-up  with  piercing  shrieks ;  a  woman 
standing  with  hands  thrown  back  (from  a 
picture  I  saw  when  a  child ) ;  a  dream  of 
snakes  I  had  five  years  ago ;  I  see  a  house 
on  fire,  a  girl  with  long,  streaming  white 
hair,  dressed  in  white,  standing  at  a  window 
with  the  fire  all  around  her. 

A  picture  of  a  window  was  drawn  on  the 
blackboard  for  the  same  boys,  who  were  asked 
to  imagine  it  a  real  window,  and  to  write  what 
they  saw  in  looking  through  it.  These  are  the 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       127 

pictures  seen  :  A  tree  and  some  houses  ;  I  seem 
to  see  a  man  wearing  an  old  felt  hat.  I  am 
looking  in  the  window  of  a  small  cottage ;  there 
is  an  old  lady  in  a  large  arm-chair,  knitting ; 
her  young  daughter  is  getting  supper,  and  all 
seems  comfortable  and  cosy. 

Air,  houses,  trees,  darkness,  Christmas  tree, 
children  playing,  a  procession,  soldiers,  streets, 
people,  many  persons,  horse-cars,  express  teams, 
large  buildings,  etc. 

I  see  an  old  shoemaker  pegging  away  at  a 
laced  boot. 

A  lot  of  boys  going  home  ;  a  long  narrow 
lane  in  the  country  with  a  pasture  on  one  side 
and  a  pond  on  the  other,  a  guide-post  and  hills 
in  the  background ;  a  green  field  in  the  country. 

A  moonlight  night,  a  large  brick  house  and  a 
tree. 

An  old  woman  with  a  large  dog  that  lives  on 
the  same  street  as  I. 

I  seem  to  see  a  beautiful  house  surrounded  by 
trees  and  a  beautiful  lawn. 

A  horse  and  team  standing. 

When  I  look  through  the  window,  I  seem  to 


128        MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 

see  a  boy  fishing  in  a  river,  and  he  seems  to  be 
catching  many  fish. 

Through  an  imaginary  window  I  can  see  a 
field,  at  the  bottom  of  which  there  is  a  lake 
with  boats  on  it,  and  beyond  is  a  green  forest. 

If  to  a  room,  the  form  of  the  room  and  ar- 
rangements. Reminiscences :  Looking  out  of 
that  imaginary  window  I  seem  to  see  my 
mother  scolding  my  brother. 

I  would  see  some  glass. 

I  seem  to  see  trees,  a  farm-house,  grass,  and 
cows,  and  the  Presidential  Range  in  the  White 
Mountains. 

The  boy  who  was  run  over  by  a  horse-car 
and  his  arm  badly  crushed ;  I  saw  a  man  fall 
down ;  a  procession  of  boys  marching  along ; 
the  scenery  from  a  window  looking  toward 
Mount  Washington ;  the  man  selling  lobsters ; 
a  palace  court-yard ;  engine  going  to  a  fire  and 
a  crowd  following  it ;  I  seem  to  see  a  black  sub- 
stance through  the  window ;  the  sky ;  makes 
me  think  of  the  faces  at  Blackwell's  Island, 
looking  earnestly  at  the  Boston  boat. 

A  criminal  behind  a  prison  door;  a  stormy 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       129 

night ;  I  see  a  face  —  it  is  a  sad  one  with  large 
eyes,  which  have  evidently  been  crying — it  is  a 
girl's  face  with  a  charity  cap  on ;  a  train  rush- 
ing along  filled  with  passengers ;  a  landscape ; 
I  see  a  face  through  this  window  —  it  appears 
to  me  like  a  look-out  on  the  world ;  a  game  of 
foot-ball ;  a  horse-car  loaded  with  people  going 
down  the  street ;  a  field ;  a  woman  sewing ;  I 
see  the  future ;  I  see  a  horse  and  team  passing ; 
transparent ;  distant  hill ;  a  dungeon ;  trees, 
fields,  spring,  horse-chestnut  tree ;  a  hill  cov- 
ered with  snow  and  a  few  bare  trees ;  makes  me 
think  of  seeing  some  one  in  a  window ;  a  large 
room  with  fine  things  in  it ;  soldiers ;  an  empty 
room  ;  friend ;  nothing  in  particular ;  the  State 
of  Illinois ;  I  saw  some  houses  through  the  win- 
dow ;  I  see  the  trees  and  houses  as  I  look 
through  the  window ;  stars ;  I  can  see  green 
fields  and  the  ocean,  with  a  lighthouse  on  a 
large  rock  in  the  middle  of  it ;  a  railroad  sta- 
tion. 

I  am  in  a  farm-house  on  a  farm,  and  looking 
upon  the  cornfield  and  a  few  trees  ;  some  trees ; 
a  lawn  inclosed  by  a  fence,  with  a  fountain  in 


130       MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 

the  centre ;  I  see  a  house  in  the  distance ;  sky, 
trees,  houses  seem  to  be  the  only  panorama  of 
a  window. 

I  seem  to  see  a  blackboard ;  a  room ;  saw  a 
regiment  of  soldiers  passing ;  I  see  a  large 
house,  square  and  brown  ;  a  dog-fight  on  Co- 
lumbus Avenue ;  a  comfortable  room ;  I  see  an 
evening  sky  full  of  stars ;  I  see  the  dog  outside ; 
looking  at  a  picture,  I  think  of  what  it  is  of, 
where  it  is,  and  who  was  engaged  in  it ;  a 
steamboat  passing  down  stream;  seeing  a  sight 
through  a  window  which  can  never  be  forgot, 
either  of  horror  or  pleasure ;  I  see  a  young 
man;  it  reminds  me  of  the  garden,  a  bed  of 
geraniums  at  the  house  I  lived  in  when  I  was 
in  Germany;  looking  at  a  boy;  a  scuttle  of  a 
sinking  ship  one  would  see  as  if  painted  on 
a  panorama  before  him  from  childhood  to  old 
age ;  I  see  through  this  window  the  ocean  with 
about  fifty  yachts  sailing ;  a  tree  and  some 
houses ;  I  see  a  child  running  across  the  street, 
a  train  is  coming,  and  the  child  is  knocked 
down  and  killed ;  a  lamp-post ;  a  boy  fishing. 


MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS.       131 

Eight  boys  drew  a  blank,  and  several  of  them 
drew  pictures  of  windows  on  their  own  papers. 

Such  meagre  data  as  the  above  show  that 
those  who  disparage  "mere  sense  knowledge" 
disparage  children,  who  up  to  these  ages  show 
few  traces  of  any  other  kind  of  knowledge,  but 
think  mainly  in  visual  pictures,  their  mental 
life  being  chiefly  made  up  of  imagination  and 
memory  of  their  personal  experiences.  Logical 
definitions  are  never  attempted.  A  true  psycho- 
logical definition  of  such  terms  could  be  got  by 
greatly  increasing  the  number  of  such  returns 
and  presenting  the  results  by  graphic,  statistic, 
and  descriptive  methods.  If  anywhere  constant 
appeal  from  the  individual  to  the  general  con- 
sciousness is  constantly  needed,  it  is  in  the 
realm  of  abstract  and  general  terms.  If  a  care- 
fully selected  set  of  terms  in  the  ethical  field 
could  be  selected,  and  returns  gathered  thus  and 
separately  for  different  ages  and  sexes,  valuable 
results  might  be  expected. 

Sir  Francis  Gulton  in  some  studies  of  this 
nature,  but  on  adult  minds,  makes  a  table  of 
results  from  which  he  draws  this  conclusion  : 


132       MENTAL  IMAGERY  OF  BOYS. 

"  Hence  we  may  see  the  greater  fixity  of  the 
earlier  associations,  and  might  measurably  de- 
termine the  decrease  of  fixity  as  the  date  of 
their  formation  became  less  remote." 

The  city  teacher,  more  than  any  other,  needs 
to  grasp  this  law,  and  give  the  children  an 
early  and  vivid  outlook  upon  nature ;  walls  and 
horse-cars,  pavements,  and  engines  are  so  likely 
to  demand  the  attention  of  children  that  no 
opportunity  should  be  lost  to  give  a  glimpse  of 
the  sky  or  clouds ;  to  turn  the  thoughts  to  a 
grass  plat  or  even  a  blade  of  grass,  and  so  open 
the  windows  of  the  soul  in  the  direction  of  influ- 
ences which  will  accelerate  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual growth. 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


Kindergarten  Stories  and  Morning  Talks, 

By  Miss  SARA  E.  WILTSE,  author  of  Stories  for  Kindergartens  and  Primary 
Schools.     x+  212  pages.    Teachers'  and  introductory  price,  75  cents. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  SEPTEMBER i 

Mary  had  a  Little  Lamb 2 

The  Bramble  Bush  and  the  Lambs 4 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  SEPTEMBER 6 

Story  of  Birds  and  Fish 6 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  SEPTEMBER 8 

Coming  and  Going 8 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  SEPTEMBER 1 1 

Tom  the  Water-Baby 1 1 

Story  of  a  Mouse 19 

The  Ermine 23 

Stories  for  Prang's  Trade  Pictures 24 

No.  I.  —  The  Farm- Yard 24 

No.  2.  —  The  Gardener 26 

No.  3.  —  The  Carpenter  27 

No.  4.  —  The  Tinsmith  and  Printer , . .  28 

No.  5.— The  Baker 31 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  OCTOBER 34 

The  Anxious  Leaf 34 

The  Walnut-Tree  that  wanted  to  bear  Tulips 35 

The  Walnut-Tree  that  bore  Tulips  (continued}  38 

How  Coal  is  made  40 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  OCTOBER 42 

The  Lion  and  the  Mouse 43 

Milk,  Butter,  and  Cheese 45 


Viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  OCTOBER „ 51 

Leather 51 

A  Legend  of  the  Great  Dipper 54 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  OCTOBER , 58 

Hair  and  Bones 58 

Grandma  Kaoline 62 

FIFTH  WEEK  OF  OCTOBER 65 

Grandma  Kaoline's  Story 65 

Horn 68 

The  Hare  and  the  Tortoise 71 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  NOVEMBER 73 

Glue  73 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  NOVEMBER 77 

Thanksgiving  Story 77 

Steak  and  Tallow 79 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  NOVEMBER 84 

Story  of  Three  Bears 85 

The  Bear  that  hugged  the  Tea-Kettle 89 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  NOVEMBER 91 

Florence  Nightingale 92 

Peep  Star !  Star  Peep  ! 93 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  DECEMBER 96 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  DECEMBER 96 

Saint  Elizabeth  and  the  Sick  Child 97 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  DECEMBER 99 

A  Jewish  Legend 99 

Saint  Christopher 100 

The  First  Christmas  Presents 103 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  DECEMBER 105 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  JANUARY 105 

Charlotte  and  the  Ten  Dwarfs 105 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  JANUARY 107 

Our  Daily  Bread  107 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

A  Story  for  Willie  Winkle 1 10 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  JANUARY 113 

The  Snowflakes 113 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  JANUARY 117 

The  Story  of  King  Midas 1 18 

The  Little  Cookie  Boy 119 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  FEBRUARY 122 

Helps  to  an  Object  Lesson  on  Calico  and  Print.  No.  I 122 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  FEBRUARY 125 

Helps  to  an  Object  Lesson  on  Calico  and  Print.  No.  2 125 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  FEBRUARY 129 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  FEBRUARY 129 

Amy  Stewart 1 29 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  MARCH 132 

Helps  to  an  Object  Lesson  on  Paper 132 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  MARCH 135 

Second  Lesson,  or  Review  of  Paper-Making 135 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  MARCH 137 

Helps  to  Object  Lessons  on  Rubber 138 

Kitty  Caoutchouc 139 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  MARCH 144 

Second  Lesson  on  Rubber 144 

The  Pea-Blossom 146 

Cloth  and  Paper  Story 1 50 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  APRIL 153 

Baby  Calla 153 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  APRIL 156 

The  Wind  and  the  Sun 156 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  APRIL 158 

A  Queer  Place  for  a  Bird's  Home 158 

FOURTH  WEEK  OF  APRIL 160 

FIFTH  WEEK  OF  APRIL 160 

The  Drop  of  Water 161 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  MAY 163 

A  Legend  of  the  Cowslip 163 

What  are  the  Dandelions? 165 

Iddly  Bung's  April  Christmas  Tree 166 

The  Flax 1 70 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  MAY 1 76 

The  Green  House  with  Gold  Nails 177 

The  Bees'  Pockets 180 

Carl  and  the  Earthworms 181 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  MAY 183 

Oak-Tree  and  Acorn 183 

The  Greenies 185 

Saint  Elizabeth  and  the  Roses 186 

FOURTH  WTEEK  OF  MAY 187 

Helps  to  an  Object  Lesson  on  the  Hickory-Tree 187 

The  Mice  in  a  Robin's  NestV 189 

The  Little  Harvest  Mouse 190 

FIRST  WEEK  OF  JUNE 192 

The  Elephant 192 

The  Camel 194 

SECOND  WEEK  OF  JUNE 196 

Hercules  and  the  Wagoner 196 

The  Crow  and  the  Pitcher 197 

THIRD  WEEK  OF  JUNE „ 199 

A  Story  for  the  Lessons  with  Staffs  and  Rings 199 

The  Ugly  Duckling 201 

We  thank  Thee 211 

A  True  Bear  Story 211 


Besides  the  Stories  the  book  contains  suggestions  for  presenting 
them  to  the  children,  outlines  for  talks,  hints  for  clay  modelling,  and 
innumerable  helpful  remarks. 

GINN   &  COMPANY,  Publishers, 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK,   AND  CHICAGO. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

AUG    1    ?     1962  Lo.  Angles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 

1 — — — 1 _ 

University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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